Uranium+(Silver+Class)

Julian Saunders =**Uranium**= Uranium is used in warfare in the form of ammunition and armor it protects those who fight for there country its also used here in America in the form of fuel rods in nuclear power plants, which provides power to thousands of people living in those areas, this compound also is used all over the world because its cost effective due to the fact its easy to pull out of the ground and process. As far as health goes people are at no real risk unless exposed for an unnatural amount of time like if you lived in a mine where they where digging it up, but if exposed to too much it could cause cancer. This compound only becomes deadly when it is improperly disposed of and it creates a deadly gas they can cause cancer but only when its airborne. Through a process called leaching this is when it is introduced to sulfuric acid this removes all impurities and then it is dried to finalize the process. Most of the things that are affected would be ammunition armor and power plants the cost of replacing this compound would grow infinitely with every passing year it would grow, where as the cost of mining uranium is expensive the price stays the same because its found in so many places. There is no real effect for me but there is one for people who go to war and depend on it to protect them and people who depend on the power from their local plant. I do not think that it should be banned because it offers so much to so many people who depend on it and it is relatively inexpensive to produce and mine, it would irresponsible to ban this compound.

=**Background**= Uranium is found in many things including nuclear weapons, nuclear fuel in some ceramics and can be found in use for electron microscopy and photograph. Uranium is taken from ores found in the ground that tend to only hold about one percent of natural uranium. In order to boost its affects the product that people use is a mixture of three compounds 238 U 235 U and 234 U. Uranium also comes as something called depleted uranium this is a compound made with the same three as before the difference is that there are lower levels of 235 U and 234 U, DU is found in armor piercing projectiles, although uranium is used in many nuclear experiments and procedures it carries a very low amount of radiation. Most people come in contact with uranium by breathing it in at the work place or school, when taken in via inhalation the body tends to be retain it in the lungs and lasts long periods because it is not being removed from the body via urine unlike soluble uranium which is spread through out bones and kidneys and much of it can be absorbed by food and then processed, at this point one will usually remove the chemical via waste. About 50% of soluble uranium will have left your body through urine within 24 hours and the other 50% will take up to 15 days where as insoluble uranium which accumulates in the lungs can take years to be fully removed form the body. Although there is uranium every where and can be found in most people there are no clear health effects positive or negative within the human body.

=Human health implications= Uranium is not a contributing factor to a long healthy life of man it has been studied for while now and has had no clear effects on most people We breath it in, eat it and drink it, it is only in large quantities that the body reacts to the chemical and when it does it tends to be bad it is shown that although people can tolerate the low level of radio activeness that it does posses when ingested in large quantities or when the uranium is enriched it can become an active carcinogen and cancer can develop in only a few years. As it stands there have been no signs of reproductive effects. =Environmental Effects= When it comes to uranium in our environment its pretty much the same with our health the uranium itself does not cause a problem it’s when it decays and produces radon and that is when our lives are put into danger. When uranium builds up in the soil it begins to breakdown like many other radioactive materials and it produces the afore mentioned radon this is next only to smoking in the case of lung cancer, radon is found in many basements and tends to effect only those that stay in the house a lot or live around large deposits of uranium but there appears to be no real environmental impact because the earth naturally makes the stuff it takes it back and stores it just as easily

=**Synthesis/Production Section**= Uranium is brought out of the earth as a substance called ore this is first ground up creating sand sized particles by doing this the uranium is now liberated, from this point the uranium is refined through a process called leaching this is when the uranium particles are mixed with sulfuric acid. His process purifies the uranium and from there it is taken through a process called drying this takes place after it goes through its chemical bath when it is dried it is often referred to as yellow cake due to its of yellow color. = = =**Economic/Political Impact**= = = Most uranium will be made into weapons which include nuclear bombs and depleted uranium ammunition, DU is the most used type of uranium and is created by putting together different types of uranium, Uranium235 Uranium234 and Uranium238 when this compound is created it is 0.7 more radio active then its counterpart and has a half life of about 4.5 billion years and is a very dense material when used properly it can become a great way of protecting our troops because of its density most ammunition cannot pierce it unless it is a DU shell which all tanks carry in the 120mm variety and smaller calibers like the .50 caliber machine gun when formed into a tip that contains the same density as the armor it can pierce even the toughest armor on the field.

=Summary= So far uranium has been used for two reasons war and power and through my research I have found no real fault to using this compound it is a renewable resource and although it is slightly radioactive it has shown no effect on humans many people thrive on this resource because they get there power from there local power plant it also has saved many lives in war because depleted uranium is not only used for ammunition but for protection in the form of armor it is a great resource since the ore needed for the production of uranium can be found any where and is found all over the world it also make the production cost extremely low compared to its costly replacement plutonium and because of this at no point should it be banned or limited.