Willis C. Uranium Chemistry

February 20, 2008. — 11 p. (network publication)
Uranium and its pure compounds are just not readily available to the amateur scientist, element collector, or student in 2008. So what is one to do? Make these materials oneself, of course. (At left is a quantity of home-baked yellowcake.).
This is the inaugural post in what will become a short series, detailing how uranium and various pure compounds can be refined from the brute earth to serve personal needs. There are differences between what is done in industrial mining / milling operations and what can be realistically accomplished in a typical American domicile. There are also differences in the raw materials that could be obtained back in the good old days when our favorite applied inorganic chemistry texts were written (“Borrow a gallon of fuming nitric acid and some glycerin from your science-teacher…”), versus what can be obtained in the paranoid, restrictive world of today. Thus, my approach to uranium chemistry emphasizes practical techniques and materials that are available to today’s home-dweller. The foregoing discussion assumes a decent background in chemistry and mature attention to safety.