Uranium's use in nuclear weapons is, understandably, the source of the widespread phobia felt by most for uranium. However, it is only weakly radioactive — the half-life of 238 U is 4.468 × 10 ...

The enrichment centrifuge is a device used to extract uranium-235 isotope from a sample of natural uranium. U-235 is fissile and thus useful to generate nuclear power and to build nuclear weapons.