Uranium

Abstract

Uranium, a dense, hard, radioactive nickel-white metal with the heaviest atomic weight of any naturally occurring element, was discovered in the oxide form in 1789 by German chemist M.H. Klaproth, who named it after the newly observed planet. It was isolated as a metal in 1841 by the reduction of uranium tetrachloride with potassium. “It was not until much later, in 1896, that the French physicist Henry Becquerel discovered the phenomenon of radioactivity through its ability to expose photographic film, a technique that continues to be used for the location and characterization of radioactive minerals in rock and ore samples”. (Steacy and Kaiman 1978, p. 107)