uraniumn.
/jᵿˈreɪnɪəm/, U.S. /jʊˈreɪniəm/, /juˈreɪniəm/ 1. A radioactive chemical element of the actinide series, atomic number 92, which is a dense, grey metal occurring esp. in the ores pitchblende and uranite, and is used as fissile material in nuclear reactors and atomic weapons. Symbol U.The longest-lived isotope (uranium-238) has a half-life of about 4½ billion years.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactivity > [noun] > uranium
uranium1790
uranium lead1914
the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > metals > specific elements > uranium > [noun]
uranite1790
uranium1790
U1844
1790 Crit. Rev. Oct. 442 It is in the green glimmer of the Saxons that M. Klaproth has found his new metal the uranite, or, as he has since called it more correctly, the uranium.
1805 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 95 348 The solution..contained oxide of uranium.
1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 39/2 Uranium is very combustible;..it burns with a remarkably white and shining light.
1875 tr. H. W. Vogel Chem. Light & Photogr. xvi. 267 Uranium itself is a rare metal whose combinations play a great part in colouring materials.
1920 A. S. Eddington Space, Time & Gravitation vii. 112 It was shown by experiments with the Eötvös torsion-balance that the ratio of weight to mass for uranium is the same as for all other substances.
1945 H. D. Smyth Gen. Acct. Devel. Atomic Energy Mil. Purposes 79 In a typical graphite-moderated pile a neutron that has escaped from the uranium into the graphite travels on the average about 2·5 cm between collisions.
1980 M. Crichton Congo 2 In addition there were major deposits of gold, tin, zinc, tungsten and uranium.
2009 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 13 Aug. 19/1 The uranium has been tested with Geiger counters, and it's de bonne qualité!
2. With distinguishing capital letter or Roman numeral. Any of several radioactive substances which are isotopes of uranium or of other elements formed by the radioactive decay of uranium. Now chiefly historical. uranium I n. = uranium-238 n. at sense 3a. uranium II n. uranium-234, a decay product of uranium-238. uranium X n. (also uranium X1) thorium-234, the immediate decay product of uranium I. uranium X2 n. metastable protactinium-234, the decay product of uranium X1. uranium Y n. thorium-231, a decay product of uranium-235. uranium Z n. protactinium-234 in its ground state.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > specific isotopes > [noun] > uranium
uranium1902
uranium series1906
radium series1909
1900 W. Crookes in Proc. Royal Soc. 66 418 The new body must have a name. Until it is more tractable I will call it provisionally UrX—the unknown substance in uranium.]
1902 W. Crookes in Nature 27 Feb. 402/1 The experiment was repeated, using a preparation of actinium (Uranium X).
1911 G. N. Antonoff in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 22 425 The period of the new product deduced from the curve is 1·5 days... It is proposed to call the new product uranium Y (UrY).
1912 H. Geiger & J. M. Nuttall in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 23 444 It enables us to calculate the period of ionium and of the second product in uranium (uranium II.) with greater certainty than has hitherto been possible.
1913 H. E. Roscoe & C. Schorlemmer Treat. Chem. (ed. 5) II. 1442 Uranium X..passes into ionium, possibly through an unknown product, uranium X2, the period of half transformation being 22 days.
1914 F. Soddy Chem. Radio-elem. II. 31 It has been supposed that uranium X1..might undergo the dual disintegration, in both modes.
1914 F. Soddy Chem. Radio-elem. (ed. 2) I. 50 A more stable representative..(called uranium Z in Fig. 2) in all probability does exist, but has not yet been obtained.
1936 S. Glasstone Recent Adv. Gen. Chem. i. 18 Two examples of this remarkable phenomenon appear to be established; firstly, uranium-Z and uranium-X2, both formed from uranium-X1 by a branching β-ray process.
1950 tr. O. Hahn New Atoms 109 The element 93 remains in bulk in solution—free from uranium, uranium X and the fission products.
1962 H. D. Bush Atomic & Nucl. Physics iv. 81 The half-life of uranium I..is obviously too long to determine by measuring the decay of its activity.
1962 Newnes Conc. Encycl. Nucl. Energy 659/1 Uranium II, U234, is a decay product of natural uranium, being formed by beta decay of uranium X2 and uranium Z.
2002 D. Cassidy et al. Understanding Physics xvii. 747 What was then called Uranium II, the ‘great-granddaughter’ of Uranium I, was found to have the same chemical properties as Uranium I itself.
2002 S. S. Deshpande Handbk. Food Toxicol. xvi. 797 (table) Protoactinium. 234Pa. Uranium X2.
2006 P. W. Jackson Chronologers' Quest xiii. 233 In the first step of the uranium decay sequence between uranium and uranium X 1, the next element in the line of descent, the half-life is 4.51 x 109 years.
2007 P. Rife Lise Meitner & Dawn Nucl. Age iii. 52 Their work—on the thorium decay series, uranium ‘Y’..and the magnetic spectra of beta rays of radioactive products of uranium—produced new questions.
3. With a numeral, denoting a particular isotope of uranium.
a. uranium-238 n. the common naturally-occurring isotope of uranium, of mass number 238.Uranium-238 forms about 99.3 per cent of natural uranium. Unlike uranium-235, it is unable to sustain a nuclear chain reaction, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear power or nuclear weapons. However, the isotope plutonium-239, which is fissile, can be produced by bombarding uranium-238 with low-energy neutrons.
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1921 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 42 338 Classification into isotopic numbers which vary..up to 54 for uranium 238.
1960 W. T. L. Neal in J. C. Collins Radioactive Wastes ii. 25 Reactors are operated for three purposes—for fuel production (e.g. production of plutonium-239 from uranium-238..), for power production and for research.
1986 Bull. Atomic Scientists May 39/2 The uranium-238 is bombarded by high-velocity neutrons from the uranium-235 fission.
2010 Independent 9 July 17/1 Radon, the naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the decay of uranium 238.
b. uranium-235 n. an isotope of uranium, mass number 235, which is able to sustain a nuclear chain reaction, making it suitable for use in nuclear power and nuclear weapons.Natural uranium contains only about 0.72% uranium-235, and must be enriched before it can be used as a nuclear fuel or explosive; cf. uranium enrichment n. at Compounds 2.
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1935 A. J. Dempster in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 75 765 I think we may safely consider the mass at 235 as an isotope of uranium.
1939 Physcial Rev. 55 150 Dempster, who was able to detect U235, estimated that it must have an abundance less than one percent that of U238.]
1939 Sci. News Let. 24 June 392/1 The present theory (yet unproved) of uranium's fission is that it is the rare uranium 235 which can be split in a chain-reaction that might—conceivably—become self-sustaining and be useful as a source of atomic power.
1958 Listener 19 June 1005/1 There are fissile materials (such as plutonium, and uranium-235) which can undergo nuclear chain-reactions.
1989 C. Caufield Multiple Exposures (1990) vi. 55 Oak Ridge's Y-12 plant, where uranium-235 for the first bomb was produced.
2010 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 14 Jan. 56/4 Uranium is recycled a few times through the centrifuge cascade, acquiring a higher percentage of uranium 235 with each cycle.
Compounds
C1.
a.
(a) General attributive, as uranium atom, uranium compound, uranium isotope, uranium mine, uranium mining, etc.Some of the more established compounds of this type are treated separately.
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1802 T. Thomson Syst. Chem. IV. 39 (table) Ord. XIX. Uranium ores.
1850 H. Watts tr. L. Gmelin Hand-bk. Chem. IV. 160 Many uranium compounds exhibit peculiarities which seem to favour this view.
1868 Proc. Royal Soc. 17 255 The yellow solutions of uranium salts exhibit two absorption-bands in the blue.
1878 W. de W. Abney Treat. Photogr. 155 Printing with iron and uranium compounds.
1908 Science 15 May 799/2 The water in the Austrian uranium mines contains radium of medical value.
1915 G. Martin Mod. Chem. & its Wonders vi. 144 Thus the atomic weight..of the uranium isotope should be 208·4.
1918 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 114 ii. 346 Assuming that 8% of the uranium atoms disintegrating produce ‘protoactinium’.
1940 G. H. J. Adlam & L. S. Price Higher School Certificate Inorg. Chem. (ed. 2) lvii. 592 Pitchblende..was found to have greater radioactivity than pure uranium salts.
1947 Ann. Amer. Acad. Sci. 249 1/2 The discovery of methods of releasing atomic energy has upset the uranium mining situation.
1964 M. Gowing Brit. & Atomic Energy 1939–45 i. 40 The possibility of producing a nuclear chain reaction depended upon the separation of the uranium isotopes.
1989 Philadelphia Inquirer 17 Dec. a2/2 Battles pointed out the gray scars left on the sandstone mountains by uranium mining.
1997 M. Perutz in N.Y. Rev. Bks. 20 Feb. 40/1 An element of only a little more than half the weight of uranium, which could have formed only by the splitting of the irradiated uranium atoms.
2010 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 21 Dec. 17 Paladin already operates two uranium mines in Namibia and Malawi.
(b)
uranium fission n.
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1939 Science 3 Mar. 203/1 It appears that the uranium fissions are produced by different processes for fast and slow neutrons.
1955 J. Lindhard in W. Pauli Niels Bohr & Devel. Physics 193 Through the discovery of uranium fission it became possible to investigate the penetration of highly charged nuclear fragments.
2010 D. D. Chiras Environmental Sci. xiv. 294/1 Over 400 different fragments can form during uranium fission, many of them radioactive.
uranium fuel n.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > nuclear fission > nuclear fuel > [noun] > uranium
uranium fuel1939
1939 Public Utilities Fortn. 8 June 750/2 If this estimate is correct, the power produced by atomic explosion, using one pound of uranium fuel an hour, would exceed the output of all existing power plants.
1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 321 Uranium fuel must compete economically with such energy sources as coal.
2004 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Aug. a9/1 Huge quantities of fossil fuel are expended..to mine, mill and enrich the uranium fuel and to construct the massive nuclear reactor buildings.
uranium ore n.
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1802Uranium ores [see Compounds 1a(a)].
1837 J. D. Dana Syst. Mineral. 372 Pitchblende. Uranius amorphus. Uncleavable Uranium-Ore.
1940 G. Gamow Birth & Death of Sun iii. 59 Madame Curie finally succeeded in extracting from some uranium ores (pitchblende from Bohemia) two previously unknown elements.
2008 Nature 17 Jan. 250/2 Uranyl ions were discovered shortly after uranium itself. Their reactions are crucial for the extraction of uranium ore.
b. In the names of salts and other compounds, as uranium acetate, uranium nitrate, uranium oxide, uranium phosphate, etc.So-called uranium salts often contain the uranyl cation: cf. uranyl n.Some of the more established compounds of this type are treated separately.
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1810 T. Thomson Syst. Chem. (ed. 4) IV. 525 (table) Uranium Oxide.
1851 Official Descriptive & Illustr. Catal. Great Exhib. I. 168/1 Chemical products..uranium nitrate and oxide, zinc chloride and sulphate [etc.].
1870 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 100 113 In using a solution of uranium for determining volumetrically phosphoric acid, residues of uranium phosphate are obtained.
1871 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 24 585 The soluble phosphate may be accurately estimated by uranium acetate if alumina be absent.
1890 J. Cagney tr. R. von Jaksch Clin. Diagnosis vii. 269 A solution of uranium oxide.
1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxix. 750 Uranium trioxide, UO3, can be prepared as a yellow or red powder by heating uranyl nitrate.
1962 Research 15 80/1 Uranium polycarbide..is much more resistant to thermal shock and thermal cycling.
1969 Listener 5 June 774/1 To separate fissile uranium from the non-fissile variety..by the use of centrifuges—rapidly spinning cylinders containing the gas uranium fluoride.
?1989 Achievement (Brit. Nuclear Fuels Special) 11/2 Fuel rods—stainless steel or Zircaloy cans containing uranium oxide pellets—are chopped and the pellets dissolved in acid.
2007 W. Briner in A. Miller Depleted Uranium iv. 70 DU [= depleted uranium] reduces litter size, viability, and lactation in rodents with orally administered uranium acetate.
c.
(a) Objective and instrumental, uranium-containing, uranium-treated, etc.
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1862 Internat. Exhib.: Illustr. Catal. Industr. Dept. II. xiv. §3054 Developments of uranium-prepared papers.
1875 Photogr. News 28 May 258/1 The half excited in the ordinary silver bath yields a good, well-exposed picture: that excited in the uranium-treated bath is hopelessly under-done.
1900 J. A. Hodges Pract. Enlarging (ed. 4) xiii. 98 The appearance of a uranium-toned print.
1970 Econ. Geol. 65 470 Fixation of much sulfur in comparison with carbonaceous matter should occur before the penetration of uranium-carrying solutions.
1992 Economist 21 Nov. 98/1 Japan plans to build a number of plutonium-fuelled breeders to complement the country's uranium-burning power stations.
(b)
uranium-bearing adj.
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1903 J. Ohly Anal., Detection & Commerc. Value Rare Metals xv. 96 A great number of uranium bearing minerals occur in nature, but those of commercial importance are limited to two, namely uraninite or pitchblende, and carnotite.
2005 J. D. Appleton in O. Selinus et al. Essent. Med. Geol. x. 243/2 Most of the uranium in rocks can be attributed to discrete uranium-bearing minerals.
uranium-powered adj.
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1945 Daily Courier (Connellsville, Pa.) 26 Dec. 1/2 Johnson pictured the men-o-war of the foreseeable future as uranium-powered submarines.
1977 Wilson Q. Summer 51 A ‘mix’ of coal-burning generators and uranium-powered nuclear plants.
1996 L. E. Grinter in Tae-Hwan Kwak & E. A. Olsen Major Powers Northeast Asia viii. 176 Having made the transition from uranium-powered nuclear fuel to plutonium as a way of reducing dependence on foreign suppliers.
uranium-producing adj.
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1915 Ogden (Utah) Standard 2 July 6/5 This section of Utah contains one of the few large areas of uranium producing ore.
1981 J. A. Yager Internat. Cooperation Nucl. Energy iii. 45 There is in fact evidence that in the early 1970s the governments of several uranium-producing countries participated in a short-lived uranium cartel.
2002 Environmental Remediation Uranium Production Facilities (Nuclear Energy Agency, OECD) 236 Kazakhstan was one of the largest uranium producing regions of the former USSR.
uranium-rich adj.
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1948 Sci. News Let. 18 Sept. 182/2 Some $9,000,000 is to be spent on an astronomical laboratory..in the midst of the Congo's most uranium-rich terrain.
1989 C. Caufield Multiple Exposures (1990) xix. 197 Radon-rich water supplies can also contribute to high radon levels in a home, as can certain uranium-rich building materials.
2003 New Scientist 12 Apr. 23/1 The minerals thorite and monazite..are rich in the radioactive element thorium, or uranium-rich uraninite.
C2.
uranium bloom n. rare a yellow deposit of secondary minerals found on uranium ores; cf. uran-bloom n. at uran- comb. form .
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1868 H. Watts Dict. Chem. V. 949 Uranium-bloom, syn. with Uraconise.
1904–5 Trans. Inst. Mining Engin. 25 638 A description is given of..‘uranium-bloom’ (a combination of copper and uranium oxides with phosphoric and silicic acids).
uranium bomb n. now chiefly historical an atomic bomb in which uranium is the fissile material.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [noun] > bomb > atomic or fission
atomic bomb1914
atom bomb1921
superbomb1940
uranium bomb1940
fission bomb1941
A-bomb1945
nuclear bomb1945
plutonium bomb1946
device1954
super1982
1940 Science 17 May 10 There are others, like the uranium bomb, which go beyond fancy into the fantastic.
1955 Times 14 June 6/5 Information appears to be coming to light here which confirms that the so-called hydrogen bomb exploded at Bikini last year was a uranium bomb involving a triple process of fission-fusion-fission.
1999 R. Hilsman From Nucl. Mil. Strategy to World without War i. 8 The mechanism of the uranium bomb was a sort of cannon that fired one subcritical hunk of uranium into another.
uranium dioxide n. a black crystalline solid which occurs naturally in pitchblende (uraninite), used as a nuclear fuel (cf. MOX n.) and formerly as a pigment for ceramic glazes and glass.Formula: UO2.
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1879 H. E. Roscoe & C. Schorlemmer Treat. Chem. II. ii. 220 Uranium Dioxide, UO2. This oxide, formerly mistaken for the metal uranium, is obtained by heating the uranoso-uranic oxide or uranic oxalate in a current of hydrogen.
1973 Nature 2 Feb. 318/1 The rods are zirconium alloy (zircalloy) tubes filled with pellets of uranium dioxide (UO2) ceramic.
2004 Internat. Affairs 80 261 In 1991 China transferred to Iran 1000kg of uranium hexafluoride, 400kg of uranium tetrafluoride and 400kg of uranium dioxide.
uranium enrichment n. the process of increasing the abundance in uranium of the fissile isotope uranium-235, typically to make it suitable for use in nuclear power or nuclear weapons; frequently attributive.Natural uranium is made up of about 0.72% uranium-235. Enriched uranium used in nuclear power generation typically contains 3–5% uranium-235; that used in nuclear weapons typically contains over 85% uranium-235. The chief methods used for uranium enrichment are gaseous diffusion and gas centrifugation of uranium hexafluoride.
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1952 Chem. Week 23 Feb. 17/2 Vitro Chemical Co. may add facilities for tungsten ore processing to its present uranium enrichment plant in Salt Lake City.
1978 S. Hoffmann Primacy or World Order iv. 153 Numerous technical possibilities are now available: plutonium reactors, new methods of uranium enrichment, new reactors with natural uranium, the development of fast breeder reactors.
1989 Bull. Atomic Scientists Dec. 43/1 The Soviet Union, now phasing out plutonium production, halted uranium enrichment this year.
2008 Metro 28 Apr. (London ed.) 16/2 UN sanctions imposed on Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.
uranium glass n. now chiefly historical a kind of yellow-green glass produced by adding uranium oxides to the mix, formerly used to make household glassware.Uranium glass fluoresces bright green when irradiated with ultraviolet light.
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1853 Royal Cornwall Gaz. 30 Sept. 6/4 A screen of sulphate of quinine, which possesses, like the uranium glass, the property of rendering those highly refrangible rays visible.
1915 R. A. Houstoun Treat. Light xv. 256 Uranium glass is coloured with oxide of uranium, and flower vases can be bought made of it.
2001 O. Sacks Uncle Tungsten xvii. 229 Uranium glass or ‘canary glass’ had been very popular in Victorian and Edwardian houses.
uranium green n. a bright yellow-green colour or fluorescence characteristic of some uranium compounds and uranium glass; (also) a uranium-containing substance of this colour.
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1868 H. Watts Dict. Chem. V. 616 Basic cupro-uranic sulphates, called uranium-green, are found at Joachimsthal.
1873 C. W. Thomson Depths of Sea iv. 148 Some of these hauls were taken late in the evening, and the tangles were sprinkled over with stars of the most brilliant uranium green.
1912 Proc. Royal Irish Acad. 1911–2 B. 29 2 This organism, when grown in broth or gelatine, produces a very well-marked uranium-green colouration of these media.
1928 Times 1 Aug. 9/6 A pale-green slab of willemite glows with remarkable brilliance, the colour being comparable with uranium-green.
2007 BusinessWorld (Nexis) 26 Mar. s1/5 Greens (stimulant). Examples: lime green, uranium green, yellow green.
uranium hexafluoride n. a whitish crystalline hygroscopic compound which in the vapour phase is the form in which uranium isotopes are separated by gaseous diffusion or gas centrifugation; cf. hex n.2, uranium enrichment n.Formula: UF6.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > specific isotopes > [noun] > uranium > in separated form
uranium hexafluoride1899
1899 Collective Index Trans. & Abstr. Chem. Soc. 1873–82 629/1 Uranium hexa-fluoride.
1941 in M. Gowing Brit. & Atomic Energy 1939–45 (1964) 395 Work on a fairly large scale is needed to develop the chemical side for the production in bulk of uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous compound we propose to use [for the manufacture of 235U].
1971 New Scientist 16 Sept. 617/2 Uranium hexafluoride (‘hex’ for short) is pumped through a cascade of..thousands of membranes.
2010 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 14 Jan. 56/2 So far, the Natanz facility has produced some 1,700 kilograms of low-enriched uranium hexafluoride.
uranium lead n. (a) the isotope lead-206; = radium G n. at radium n. 1b; (b) attributive ( uranium-lead) designating a method of isotopic dating of rock based on measurement of the relative amounts of uranium-238 and -235 and of their ultimate decay products lead-206 and -207; (of dates, ages, etc.) obtained using this method.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactivity > [noun] > uranium
uranium1790
uranium lead1914
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > measurement of ionizing radiation > [adjective] > using isotopic dating
uranium lead1914
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > specific isotopes > [noun] > radium
radium A1904
radium B1904
radium C1904
radium D1904
radium E1904
radium F1904
radium G1904
uranium lead1914
1908 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 19 135 It does not seem to me that geologists can possibly accept the ages of minerals as determined from the uranium-helium or the uranium-lead ratios, which do not seem consistent and are far longer than stratigraphers could admit.]
1914 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 28 825 The equation for the complete disintegration of uranium is U → 8He + Radium G (uranium lead).
1925 J. Joly Surface-hist. Earth ix. 153 If thorium-lead ratios are trustworthy we should divide the uranium-lead ages, as determined for very old rocks, by four.
1955 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 66 1141/2 The analysis..demonstrates that small amounts of uranium lead and major amounts of thorium and thorium lead are very loosely bound, chemically.
1957 R. Casanova Illustr. Guide Fossil Collecting 43 Geological time has been calculated by a number of methods, of which the uranium-lead method is one of the best.
1977 A. Hallam Planet Earth 184/2 Rubidium-strontium and uranium-lead measurements conclusively show that all these rocks were formed between about 3700 and 3800 million years ago.
2006 D. H. Erwin Extinction iii. 92 So here we switch from argon years to uranium lead years. The lowermost volcanics of the Arydzhansky Suite date to 251.7 million years ago.
uranium ochre n. now rare = uran-ochre n. at uran- comb. form .
ΚΠ
1821 R. Jameson Man. Mineral. Index 481 Uranium-ochre.
1882 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 124 476 A lemon-yellow uranium ochre from Johanngeorgenstadt analyzed by Schulze is called uranopilite by Weisbach.
1917 Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. No. 625. 436 Uraninite..is partly altered to yellow uranium ocher (uranophane?) and is accompanied by triplite.
2005 RWE Austral. Business News (Nexis) 8 Nov. Mineralisation is expected to mirror that of the Mokobaesi deposit which consists of encrustations of secondary yellow uranium ochre in calcrete and in the underlying Ecca siltstones.
uranium orange n. now historical an orange pigment for glass, ceramics, etc., made from uranium oxide and other ingredients.
ΚΠ
1849 A. Wachter in London Jrnl. Arts, Sci., & Manuf. 35 62 Uranium orange.—Mix carefully 2 parts of oxide of uranium, 1 of chloride of silver, 3 of glass of bismuth (prepared by melting together 4 parts of oxide of bismuth and 1 of crystallized boric acid), and grind fine upon glass.
1907 L. F. Day Enamelling xxiv. 195 How should he possibly foresee that copper green and manganese purple will together give him a subdued yellow, or cobalt blue and uranium orange an indigo colour?
2001 Stud. Conservation 46 192/1 The radiation exposure from the uranium-orange dinnerware was many times higher than normal background levels.
uranium series n. the series of isotopes produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-238 and ending with lead-206, each member of the series resulting from the decay of the previous one; cf. uranium lead n.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > specific isotopes > [noun] > uranium
uranium1902
uranium series1906
radium series1909
1906 Nature 27 Dec. 195/2 We cannot but conclude that actinium is a member of the uranium series.
1947 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 190 30 206Tl has been shown to be a member of the uranium series of elements.
1973 J. Yarwood Atomic & Nucl. Physics viii. 246 There are three main series of radioactive elements: the uranium, thorium, and actinium series, leaving out..the comparatively recently discovered neptunium series.
2006 C. Stringer Homo Britannicus vi. 221 Final proof that the art was ancient has come from uranium-series dating of cave flowstone covering parts of the stag.., giving an age of over 13,000 years.
uranium vitriol n. Mineralogy (now rare) = johannite n.2; cf. uran-vitriol n. at uran- comb. form .
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1835 C. U. Shepard Treat. Mineral.: 2nd Pt. II. 254 Uranium-Vitriol. (See Johannite.)
1850 H. Watts tr. L. Gmelin Hand-bk. Chem. IV. 175 Monosulphate. Found native as Uranium-vitriol.
1913 H. Roscoe et al. Treat. Chem. (ed. 5) II. 1118 Amongst the more important are certain sulphates, such as uranium-vitriol or johannite, and some basic sulphates.
uranium yellow n. (a) a bright lemon-yellow colour characteristic of some uranium compounds; frequently attributive; (b) a yellow uranium-containing compound or pigment; spec. sodium diuranate, Na2U2O7·6H2O, formed as a precipitate by adding sodium hydroxide to a solution of uranyl sulphate and formerly used in making yellow glass (cf. yellowcake n.).
ΚΠ
1844 Chem. Gaz. 1 June 250 It soon begins to dissolve, with a uranium-yellow colour and with contemporaneous disengagement of ammonia.
1849 A. Wachter in London Jrnl. Arts, Sci., & Manuf. 35 62 Uranium yellow.—Mix intimately 1 part of oxide of uranium, 4 of glass of lead (prepared by melting together 8 parts of minium and 1 of white sand), and grind them fine..upon glass.
1857 Chem. Gaz. 2 Mar. 90 The uranium-yellow obtained in the ordinary way from the solution was very pure and had a beautiful colour.
1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxix. 750 Sodium diuranate..is known as uranium yellow, and is used in painting glass and porcelain and in making the yellow fluorescent uranium glass.
1998 Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (Nexis) 15 Nov. t5 You'll pass uranium-yellow grasses gleaming in the sun, red earth dotted with green pinons, black lava flows, and white sands.
2007 Q. R. Skrabec Michael Owens & Glass Industry i. 21 Copper red, manganese violet, uranium yellow, and many other colors were common to the Egyptians in 1300 B.C.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1790