Uranium

When mining for uranium, the ore is first ground up and the cleaned up concentrated product is uranium oxide. This is treated and changed into a gas called uranium hexafluoride. This product contains two kinds of uranium called isotopes. It is 99.3% U238 and .7% U235 and it is the 235 that is needed for power plants. This is concentrated up to about 4% and is then ready for a reactor. During the cold war this was the method used to get fuel for the nuclear power plants. In 1979 an agreement between the USA and the USSR allowed both countries to reduce their nuclear bombs and so they started using the material from these bombs to run the power plants. Thus they stopped processing U 235 and now they have used up all the bomb material and must go back to the old way. Russia was providing the US with most of its uranium but that must now be replaced from some other source. In May of this year congress passed a law prohibiting the purchase of uranium from Russia.The best options are Canada and Australia.