Name       : Uranium
Symbol     : U
Atomic #   : 92
Atom weight: 238.03
Melting P. : 1132
Boiling P. : 3818
Oxidation  : +3, +4, +5, +6
Pronounced : yoo-RAY-ni-em
From       : Named for planet Uranus
Identified : Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1789
Appearance : Silvery-white, dense, ductile and malleable, radioactive metal.
Note       : Virtually all uranium and its compounds are used by the
             military and the nuclear power industry
             
[Properties]

  Uranium is a heavy, silvery, and lustrous metal. It is fairly hard, yet
ductile and malleable. It tarnishes in air with a thin oxide coating, and
it reacts with water - especially boiling water. It dissolves in acids,
but not in bases. It is not a very good conductor of electricity.
  Uranium is part of the actinide series of elements, a series that begins
with actinium (Ac, element 89) and concludes with lawrencium (Lr, element
103).
  Uranium is best known for its consistently high level of radioactivity.
Even most of the compounds, unless diluted to trace proportions, can pose
health hazards. Uranium was the first substance known to be radioactive.
  Uranium is also quite famous for being one of the few nature elements
that have fissionable isotopes. You cannot make a nuclear reactor or atom
bomb out of anything that is radioactive; the material must be able to
undergo a fission process whereby the numbers of neutrons in motion can
multiply, rather than remain fixed or diminish.