Forty Years of Uranium Resources, Production and Demand in Perspective
The Red Book Retrospective
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Exploration
Nuclear Energy Agency
The element uranium was discovered by Martin Klaproth in 1789 in the mineral pitchblende derived from Jachymov (Joachimsthal) of the Bohemian part of the Erzgebirge (Kruzne Hory, Ore Mountains) in what is now the Czech Republic. Through the 19th century there were only limited uses for uranium, mainly ceramic glazes and pigmentation of glass (the famous green Bohemian glass) until the discovery of radioactivity by Rutherford at the end of that century. When the element radium was detected by Marie Curie at the beginning of the 20th century uranium was mined to extract radium, thus initiating the first uranium mining “boom”. This early uranium mining activity did not, however, even begin to compare with the activity that took place once the fission of uranium was detected by Otto Hahn in 1938, initiating its use for military and energy purposes.
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