Uranium is of great interest because of its application to nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Uranium contamination is an emotive environmental problem. It is not particularly rare and is more common than beryllium or tungsten for instance.
This sample is fromThe Elements Collection, an attractive and safely packaged collection of the 92 naturally occurring elements that is available for sale.
Uranium gives interesting yellow and green colours and fluorescence effects when included to glass in conjunction with other additives. The image below is an English amphora dating to about 1930 showing a characteristic yellow-green colour. The image is reproduced with the permission of Ken Tomabechi (Uranium Glass Gallery in Japan), where you can find further information about uranium glass. This type of glass is sometimes referred to as "vaseline glass" in the UK and USA and as "Annagelb" (yellow) or "Annagruen" (green) in Germany.
Density of solid: 19050 kg m-3
Molar volume: 12.49 cm3
Thermal conductivity: 27.6 W m‑1 K‑1
Melting point: 1405.3 [1132.2 °C (2070 °F)] K
Boiling point: 4200 [ca.3900 °C (7101 °F)] K
Enthalpy of fusion: 20.5 kJ mol-1
Atomic radius (empirical): 175 pm
Molecular single bond covalent radius: 170 (coordination number 3,6) ppm
van der Waals radius: [ 305 ] ppm
Pauling electronegativity: 1.38 (Pauling units)
Allred Rochow electronegativity: 1.22 (Pauling units)
Mulliken-Jaffe electronegativity: (no data)
First ionisation energy: 597.63 kJ mol‑1
Second ionisation energy: 1120 kJ mol‑1
Third ionisation energy: 1910 kJ mol‑1
Universe: 0.2 ppb by weight
Crustal rocks: 1800 ppb by weight
Human: 1 ppb by weight
