Friday, August 22, 2008

Uranium in the environment

Uranium is a naturally occurring element found in low levels within all rock, soil, and water. This is the highest-numbered element to be found naturally in significant quantities on earth.there are many sources of uranium such as air crashes and combustion.Uranium metal, as depleted uranium, has been used in aircraft for trim weights in the past (although the practice has been discontinued), so after an air crash a release of uranium or its combustion products is possible.Studies of depleted uranium aerosol exposure suggest that uranium combustion product particles would quickly settle out of the air and thus could not affect populations more than a few kilometers from target areas..We can get uranium from the incident of corrosion..It is reported that corrosion of uranium in a silica rich aqueous solution can produce uranium dioxide and uranium trioxide.During the extraction of uranium ore and its processing, some releases of uranium occur. The releases of radium and other decay products of uranium are normally more important than the uranium in tailings ponds at the mines and ore processing centers.It is believed that uranium can bring harmful to human.The organ in our body which affected most by uranium is kidney.

for more information,you may search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment#Sources

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