Why is uranium used for nuclear fuel, is it possible to use a similar but more abundant metal?

Answer 1

Uranium is used for nuclear fuel because the atom is radioactive - it releases neutrons over time. If enough mass of Uranium is put together, the neturons from one atom hit another one and cause it to release more netutrons - this causes a cascading chain reaction.

The idea behind a reactor is controlling the speed of this reaction by absorbing the excess neutrons in the pile and keeping the reaction from becoming explosive. We just want it to generate heat.

As for using a simliar but more abundant metal, there aren't any. Uranium is actually relatively common, and the radioactive isotopes are also somewhat common when it comes to radioactive materials. It also has a lot of mass and produces enough neutrons for the radioactive isotopes that one can generate that self-sustaining reaction in a pile.

Hope this helps!

Orion

Answer 2

uranium is used since it is an unstable element among others and it is easier to split the atoms to create the initial and continuing reaction. Essentially any material could be used to create a reaction if you had enough power to split the initial atoms and keep the reaction going. It should be interesting to find out what happens after November 2007, when the CERN super collider is activated in France. Is it possible for Man to create and stabilize a reactive Black Hole singularity ? . If it turns out "yes". Then you will have all the power nessesary to create reactions from ordinary: paper, plastics, rocks, trees or any other article of mass.

Answer 3

by artificially radioactivating the metals it is possible to use them in nuclear stations