Uranium and Thorium Resources

Abstract

Uranium is a widely distributed element which is essential, at least in the near term, to the use of nuclear fission as a source of energy. Uranium is ubiquitous in the earth because of the wide variety of minerals in which it can occur, and because of the variety of geophysical and geochemical processes that have transported it since the primordial formation of the earth from the debris of supernovae. Uranium is approximately as common in the earth's crust as tin or beryllium, and is a minor constituent in most rocks and in seawater.