When most people listen to the word uranium, they think of clouds in the form of a fungus, confrontations of the cold war or the bright green bars of science fiction. But uranium is not just fuel for apocalyptic fears. It is also a surprisingly common element that plays a crucial role in modern energy, medicine and geopolitics.
Uranium was again the worldwide care center in June 2025, when the United States launched military attacks against Iran sites that are believed to house highly enriched uranium, a measure that revived urgent conversations about nuclear proliferation. Many headlines have mentioned the enrichment of Uranium of 60% by Iran, but what does that really mean?
As a biochemist, I am interested in demystifying this element often misunderstood.
What is uranium?
Uranium occupies position 92 in the periodic table and is a radioactive metallic element. Radioactivity is a natural process in which some atoms, such as uranium, thorium and radius, break down alone, releasing energy.
The German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth initially identified the uranium in 1789 and appointed it in honor of the planet Uranus, newly discovered. However, their power was not unlocked until the twentieth century, when scientists discovered that uranium atoms could be divided through a process known as nuclear fission. In the fission, the nucleus of the atom is divided into two or more nuclei, which releases large amounts of energy.
Uranium is found everywhere. It is in the rocks, on the earth and in the water. There are even traces of uranium in plants and animals, although in tiny quantities. Most of the earth’s crust is extracted, where it is extracted and concentrated to increase the amount of its most useful radioactive form, Uranium-235.
The dilemma of enrichment
Uranium-235 is an uranium isotope, which is a version of an element that has the same basic identity, but weighs a little more or less. Think of apples of the same tree. Some are large and other small, but they are all apples, even if they have slightly different weights. Basically, an isotope is the same element, but with a different mass.
The unprocessed uranium is mainly Uranium-238. It only contains approximately 0.7% of Uranium-235, the isotope that allows most of the nuclear fission to occur. Then, the enrichment process concentrates Uranium-235.
Enrichment can make uranium more useful for the development of nuclear weapons, since natural uranium does not have enough uranium-235 to function well in reactors or weapons. The process usually contains three steps.
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The first step is to turn uranium into a gas, called uranium hexafluoruro. In the second step, the gas is channeled to a machine called centrifugal that rotates very fast. Because uranium-235 is a bit lighter than Uranium-238, it moves outwardly when it turns, and the two isotopes separate.
It is something like the way in which a salad centrifugator separates the water from the lettuce. A turn does not make much difference, so the gas is rotated through many centrifugers in a row until Uranium-235 is concentrated.
In general, uranium can feed nuclear plants and generate electricity when enriched between 3% and 5%, which means that between 3% and 5% of uranium is Uranium-235. With an enrichment of 20%, the Uranium-235 is considered highly enriched uranium, and the uranium suitable for weapons is known with 90% or more.
This high degree works in nuclear weapons because it can sustain a rapid and uncontrolled chain reaction, which releases a large amount of energy compared to the other isotopes.
The varied powers of uranium
While many headlines focus on the military potential of Uranium, this element also plays a vital role in modern life. At low levels of enrichment, uranium feeds almost 10% of world electricity.
In the United States, many nuclear plants work with uranium fuel, producing carbon -free energy. In addition, some cancer therapies and image diagnostic technologies take advantage of uranium to treat diseases.
In naval technology, submarines and nuclear propulsion aircrafts depend on enriched uranium to operate silently and efficiently for years.
Uranium is a story of duality. It is a mineral extracted from old rocks that can illuminate a city or erase it from the map. It is not just a relic of the cold war or science fiction. It is real, is powerful and is shaping our world, from global conflicts to cancer clinics, from the energy network to international diplomacy.
In the end, true power is not only in the energy released by the element. It is how people choose to use it.
*André O. Hudson is dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Professor of Biochemistry at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
This article was originally published in The Conversation/Reuters
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