Chemistry: A Volatile History to investigate. Marie Curie began her investigations by testing a uranium ore called pitchblende with an electrometer. She discovered it was four times more radioactive than pure uranium, and wondered if this was due to the presence of an even more radioactive element in the pitchblende. Curie began stockpiling tonnes of pitchblende, then in the most basic of workshops with primitive equipment she undertook a multitude of complex and dangerous procedures in an attempt to isolate this new element. In the event, Curie discovered two new elements, polonium named after her native Poland and radium. Whilst these were naturally occurring
Uranium nitride and, in particular, it undergoes an (n,p) reaction which produces significant amounts of radioactive C which would need to be carefully contained and sequestered during reprocessing or permanent storage. Each uranium dinitride complex is considered to have three distinct compounds present simultaneously because of decomposing of uranium dinitride (UN) into uranium sesquinitride (UN), and the uranium mononitride (UN). Uranium dinitrides decompose to uranium mononitride by the following sequence of reactions: Decomposition of UN is the most common method for isolating uranium sesquinitride (UN). Uranium mononitride is being considered as a potential fuel for generation IV reactors such as the Hyperion