Natural uranium is 0.7% U-235 and the rest is U-238. For nuclear reactor you need enriched uranium with higher percentage of U-235. But what to do with U-238 if it’s useless as reactor fuel, as a nuclear weapon, and still radioactive to use it as regular material.
In: Physics
Enrichment produces large volumes of depleted uranium (DU) which contains less U235 than natural uranium and as you say doesn’t have many nuclear uses; it can however be used in a fast breeder reactor where it is transformed by neutrons into plutonium 239, or as a tamper in nuclear weapons which helps increase the yield of the bomb.
However, it has some uses because it is incredibly dense. DU is sometimes used as a counterweights or ballast to help balance aircraft wings as well as in the keels of racing yachts.
It can also be used as a radiation shield to protect people from high energy gamma ray sources used in industrial and medical applications.
Another use is as the so-called penetrator in tank shells. Because it is so dense, DU can punch through tank armour and make shells much more lethal than alternatives such as steel or tungsten.
Latest Answers