Uses of Uranium

Nuclear Weapons

The first major use of uranium was in weapons of mass destruction. This is still a major use of uranium.

The weapons were developed in the 1940's by the USA, which is the only country to have deliberately used them against people. Over a 100,000 people were killed by burns and ionizing radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The vast proportion of these casualties were civilians. The world's first and only nuclear attack killed more civilians than twenty World Trade Centre attacks.

Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki the USA has continued to increase its stockpiles of nuclear weapons (horizontal proliferation), which now includes both atomic bombs (A-bombs) and hydrogen bombs (H-bombs). In the meantime other countries have acquired the technology (vertical proliferation). Nuclear weapons countries now include the USA, the UK, Russia, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. These countries all use uranium for nuclear weapons, for nuclear power, and for research reactors. Research reactors, such as Australia's HIFAR reactor at Lucas Heights near Sydney, have played a prominent role in the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

South Australia played a promient role in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Uranium mined at Radium Hill and processed at Port Pirie was exported to the UK were it was made into nuclear weapons, which were then tested by the British at Maralinga and Emu Field. South Australia is the only place to not only host nuclear weapons tests for a foreign power but also to supply the uranium for the tests.

A-bombs are based on the same principles as nuclear reactors. nuclear fission chain reactions produce energy. The difference between an A-bomb and a nuclear reactor is that the A-bomb produces the energy very quickly whilst the nuclear reactor produces it more slowly. The A-bombs dropped on Japanese civilians used both enriched uranium and enriched plutonium produced from uranium in nuclear reactors.

H-bombs use nuclear fusion rather than fission. In nuclear fusion energy is released during the fusion of light isotopes such as those of hydrogen and lithium. This is the basis of the fusion reactor on which many billions of government money has been spent. After many decades the fusion reactor has not got past the research stage.

The USA is the major nuclear weapons country. It is also the biggest user of nuclear power. The USA has the biggest demand for uranium. Uranium from Roxby Downs and Beverley are exported to the USA.

Greater technical detail can be found on this topic by searching through the listed briefing papers and education resources at http://www.ccsa.asn.au/nic/.

In this section - Uses of Uranium

• Is Uranium Needed?
• Nuclear Weapons
• Nuclear Power
• Nuclear Medicine
• Industry
• Smoke Detectors
• Food Irradiation 
• Armour Piercing Weapons