Yellow Cake Essay

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Why Is Yellowcake Uranium Called Yellowcake? Wednesday May 9, 2012 Have you ever wondered how yellowcake uranium got its name? Yellowcake or urania is a uranium powder obtained from leach solutions during uranium ore processing. Modern yellow cake consists of 70-90% uranium oxides. The material is called yellowcake because a drum of the powder produced by early uranium mining operations resembled a yellow cake. However, modern yellowcake usually is brown or black. Photo: A drum of yellowcake uranium, viewed from above. (US Department of Energy) Comments (0)PermalinkShare Chrome Versus Chromium Wednesday May 9, 2012 Have you ever wondered what the difference is between chrome and chromium? Chromium is an element. It is a hard, corrosion-resistant transition metal. Chrome, which you may see as decorative trim on cars and motorcycles or to harden tools used for industrial processes, is an electroplated layer of chromium over another metal. Either hexavalent chromium or trivalent chromium may be used to produce chrome. The electroplating chemicals for both processes are toxic and regulated in many countries. Hexavalent chromium is extremely toxic, so trivalent chrome or tri-chrome tends to be more popular for modern applications. In 2007 hexa-chrome was banned for use on automobiles in Europe. Some chrome for industrial uses remains hexa-chrome because the corrosion resistance of hexa-chrome plating tends to exceed that of tri-chrome plating. It's interesting to note that prior to the 1920's the decorating plating on automobiles was nickel and not chrome. Comments (0)PermalinkShare This Day in Science History - May 9 - Gay-Lussac Tuesday May 8, 2012 May 9th marks the passing of Gay-Lussac. Guy-Lussac was the French chemist who gave us two ideal gas laws and discovered the element boron. He is also known for the unit 'degrees Lussac' or 'degrees

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