uranium having less than the natural content of the easily fissionable uranium 235, e.g. the residue from an enrichment plant or some reactors
natural uranium from which most of the uranium-235 has been removed. It can be used as a heavy metal in ballistic missiles and as a fertile material in a fast-breeder reactor.
Depleted uranium consists of little else but the heavier isotope (superscript 238)U, and it has certain specialized applications such as for calorimetry in high-energy particle physics and for making armour-piercing shells. Use: Balance weights for aircraft, high-speed rotors in gyro-compasses, gamma-radiation shielding, radio-isotope transportation casks, and fuel element transfer casks, in general as structural material applicable to radiation shielding.
