Uranium ore for silver in the 16th century. F.E. Brückmann made the first mineralogical description of the mineral in 1727 and the vein deposit Jachymov in the Czech Republic became the type locality for uraninite. In 1789 the German chemist M. H. Klaproth discovered the element of uranium in a sample of pitchblende from the Johanngeorgenstadt vein deposit. The first industrial production of uranium was made from the Jachymov deposit and Marie and Pierre Curie used the tailings of the mine for their discovery of polonium and radium. Vein deposits consist of uranium minerals filling in cavities such as cracks, veins, fractures,
Enriched uranium nuclear weapons proliferation. During the Manhattan Project enriched uranium was given the codename oralloy, a shortened version of Oak Ridge alloy, after the location of the plants where the uranium was enriched. The term oralloy is still occasionally used to refer to enriched uranium. There are about 2,000 tonnes (t, Mg) of highly enriched uranium in the world, produced mostly for nuclear power, nuclear weapons, naval propulsion, and smaller quantities for research reactors. The U remaining after enrichment is known as depleted uranium (DU), and is considerably less radioactive than even natural uranium, though still very dense and extremely hazardous