What is uranium mined in australia used for?
- Uranium Mined in Australia is all exported overseas.
- Biggest importers from Australia are USA, Japan and Europe.
- Uses of uranium in other countries are for nuclear powered based eletricity,
- Military Uses:
- The main application of uranium in the military sector is in projectiles. Depleted uranium is used to create high-density penetrators such as those projectiles used to piece heavily armored targets. Removable armor for vehicles such as tanks is made from hardened uranium plating.
- Depleted uranium is used as shielding in containers that store radioactive materials despite the fact that it itself is radioactive.
- Uranium is also used as the fissile explosive to create nuclear weaponry.
- Uranium is used to power nuclear powered submarines and ships.
- The major use of uranium in a non-military capacity is in nuclear power plants. It is used to fuel the nuclear fission reactors.
- Before people knew that uranium was radioactive it was used as a yellow coloring for pottery and glassware. It was also used to color kitchen and bathroom tiles.
- Uranium was used in photographic chemicals, lamp filaments, to improve the whiteness of dentures and in the leather and wood industry as stains and dyes.
- Uranium is also mined to isolate radium for use in glow in the dark paints for clock faces and aircraft dials.
- The radioisotopes from uranium are used in smoke detectors.
- Uranium metal is used as ballasts in yachts and airplanes.
- Uranium derivatives are used in biological science as stains to increase the contracts between virus and other cells.
- Its long half-live has also led to it being used in dating the age of the earth.
- Uranium metal is used as a target for high-powered x-ray machines.
key facts on uranium
- Uranium was first mined for when it was discovered that by using it you could make disastrous bombs. (Atomic Bombs)
- A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons.
- Uranium is weakly radioactive because all its isotopes are unstable.
- Uranium has the second highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements, lighter only than plutonium.
- Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead, but not as dense as gold
- It occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite.
- In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238 (99.2739–99.2752%), uranium-235 (0.7198–0.7202%), and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0050–0.0059%).
- Uranium is a silvery white, weakly radioactive metal
- As little as 15 lb (7 kg) of uranium-235 can be used to make an atomic bomb.
uranium Mining Techniques
- Open Pit Mining
- In open pit mining, overburden is removed by drilling and blasting to expose the ore body, which is then mined by blasting and excavation using loaders and dump trucks.
- Underground Uranium Mining
- If the uranium is too far below the surface for open pit mining, an underground mine might be used with tunnels and shafts dug to access and remove uranium ore. There is less waste material removed from underground mines than open pit mines, however this type of mining exposes underground workers to the highest levels of radon gas.
- Heap Leaching
- Heap leaching is an extraction process by which chemicals (usually sulfuric acid) are used to extract the economic element from ore which has been mined and placed in piles on the surface. Heap leaching is generally only economically feasible only for oxide ore deposits. Oxidation of sulfide deposits occur during the geological process called weatherization. Therefore oxide ore deposits are typically found close to the surface. If there are no other economic elements within the ore a mine might choose to extract the uranium using a leaching agent, usually a low molar sulfuric acid.
- In-situ Leaching
- In-situ leaching (ISL), also known as solution mining, or in-situ recovery (ISR) in North America, involves leaving the ore where it is in the ground, and recovering the minerals from it by dissolving them and pumping the pregnant solution to the surface where the minerals can be recovered. Consequently there is little surface disturbance and no tailings or waste rock generated. However, the orebody needs to be permeable to the liquids used, and located so that they do not contaminate ground water away from the orebody.
- Recovery from seawater
- The uranium concentration of sea water is low, approximately 3.3 mg per cubic meter of seawater. But the quantity of this resource is gigantic and some scientists believe this resource is practically limitless with respect to world-wide demand. That is to say, if even a portion of the uranium in seawater could be used the entire world's nuclear power generation fuel could be provided over a long time period.[6] Some anti-nuclear proponents[7][dead link] claim this statistic is exaggerated.[citation needed] Although research and development for recovery of this low-concentration element by inorganic adsorbents such as titanium oxide compounds has occurred since the 1960s in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, this research was halted due to low recovery efficiency.
key facts on uranium in Australia
- Mining for uranium in Australia first started in 1854 when Uranium was discovered at Mary Kathleen in 1954
- There are three uranium mines currently operating in Australia, they are: Ranger, in the Northern Territory; Olympic Dam, in South Australia, and Beverley, also in South Australia.
- Two further projects, Honeymoon and FourMile in South Australia, have the potential to begin production within a year to 18 months
- Several other significant sites for uranium mining in Western Australia have been found, such as Yeelirrie and Kintyre. These are currently under development and mining on these sites is not likely to begin before 2014.
- Australia's known uranium resources are the world's largest - 31% of the world total.
- Australia is believed to have 23% of the word's total Uranium
- In 2011-12 Australia produced 7700 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate. It is the world's third-ranking producer, behind Kazakhstan and Canada.
- Australian uranium is produced only for export and is used only for peaceful purposes in civil nuclear power stations overseas.
- Demand for uranium is growing as overseas countries are increasingly looking to nuclear power as a secure, reliable source of electricity that does not pollute the air and one that can help reduce the effects of harmful climate change.
- Uranium is valuable to Australia both as an export earner and as a contributor to global climate change relief.
- Generating electricity with uranium-based fuel produces few emissions which is very healthy fort he environment
- Because Australia exports all the uranium it mines uranium is a very important part of the Australian economy
In 2008 Australia exported over 10,700 tonnes of uranium to other countries around the world the graph below shows the spread of which they exported the uranium.