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Uranium was first discovered in 1789 by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in the mineral pitchblende in the oxide form. Eugene-Melchior Peligot first isolated uranium as an elemental metal in 1841. Uranium was discovered to be radioactive in 1896 by Henri Becquerel and the fission of uranium was observed by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, as explained by Lise Meitner in 1939. In the span of only a few years, the ability of uranium to sustain a neutron-induced fission chain reaction, hence conversion to nuclear energy, was demonstrated by Enrico Fermi in 1942 at the University of Chicago.

Uranium was also used in non-fuel applications, although there are very few of these applications. Before the discovery of its fissile nuclear properties, uranium was mainly used in small amounts to color glass and pottery.

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