Uranium

The Uranium industry is composed of firms that mine and mill raw uranium ore, refine and convert it into uranium dioxide and uranium hexafluoride, and produce fuel bundles for nuclear reactors

  • $60,927 Average salary
  • 90.6% Of Men Make Up This Industry
  • 9.4% Of Women Make Up This Industry
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History & Future

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Future

The Reference Scenario of the 2021 edition of the World Nuclear Association's Nuclear Fuel Report shows a 27% increase in uranium demand over 2021-30 (for a 16% increase in reactor capacity – many new cores will be required, and electricity demand is expected to recover following the pandemic. Adequate uranium resources exist to support the long-term, sustainable use of nuclear energy for low-carbon electricity generation, as well as for other applications, including hydrogen production.

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History

Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, in the mineral called pitchblende. It was named after the planet Uranus, discovered eight years earlier. Uranium mining occurred mostly in the southwestern United States and drew many Native Americans and others into work in the mines and mills. Despite a long and well-developed understanding, based on the European experience earlier in the century, that uranium mining led to high lung cancer rates, few protections were provided for US miners before 1962, and their adoption was slow and incomplete. The resulting high rates of illness among miners led 1990 to the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.