Pitchblende

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Naturally-occurring uranium oxide, a variety of the mineral uraninite. countable, uncountable

    "Working in Paris in 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie processed thousands of pounds of pitchblende from the same glass-factory tailings in order to isolate two radioactive elements that had hitherto been unknown: radium and polonium."

  2. 2
    a mineral consisting of uranium oxide and trace amounts of radium and thorium and polonium and lead and helium; uraninite in massive form is called pitchblende which is the chief uranium ore wordnet

Etymology

From German Pechblende, from Pech (“pitch”) + Blende (“blende”).

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