uranium hexafluoride

American  

noun

Chemistry.

1. a colorless, water-insoluble, crystalline, volatile solid, UF 6 , used in its gaseous state in separating uranium 235 from uranium.

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uranium hexafluoride British  

/ ˌhɛksəˈflʊəˌraɪd /

noun

1. a compound used in the process of uranium enrichment that produces fissile material for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Formula: UF 6

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Etymology

Origin of uranium hexafluoride

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

uranium hexafluoride

It also announced on Tuesday evening the expansion of uranium hexafluoride production to “over 10 kilotonnes” annually, up some 20% from its 2024 output.

From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026

It said the worker died from a "mechanical injury" caused by a breach in a container of uranium hexafluoride, a chemical compound used in uranium enrichment.

From Reuters ● Jul. 14, 2023

AP also tracked millions of dollars worth of shipments of radioactive uranium hexafluoride from Russian state-owned Tenex JSC, the world’s largest exporter of initial nuclear fuel cycle products, to Westinghouse Electric Co. in South Carolina.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 24, 2022

Enriched uranium is produced by feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into centrifuges to separate out the most suitable isotope for nuclear fission, called U-235.

From BBC ● Jan. 1, 2021

They found Abelson laboring in a forest of one hundred towering cylindrical columns, in which uranium hexafluoride with a high concentration of U-235 was accumulating.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik