Uranium

Uranium (U) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Uranium’s research intensity currently sits at about 34% of its own all-time peak, a level that has remained essentially flat over the last decade.

Research intensity ran from about 31% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 34% in 2026 — essentially flat across the window, and the all-time peak (1961) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, uranium has a larger-than-average research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 12,394 in 2016 to about 20,973 in 2025 (1.69x). That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research even as its own count rose.

The largest portion of uranium research belongs to the community focused on Uranium Extraction and Recovery from Aqueous Sources. These papers focus on adsorption, extraction, and capture of uranium from seawater and mining waste using organic frameworks, with distinctive work on uranyl ions and uranium recovery. Uranium is one strand of a broader community, with about 30% of its papers involving uranium. This community accounts for about 45% of the element's recent research, a share that is rising from 40% in the previous period. A key anchor is a 2023 paper in Nature Communications on tuning excited state electronic structure in covalent organic frameworks, cited over 470 times, which leads on both citation and impact.

The second major area is Uranium Fuel and Reactor Design for Light Water Systems. This community centers on uranium dioxide and nitride fuels, enrichment strategies, and thermal properties for light water and small modular reactors. Uranium is one strand of a broader community here, with about 12% of its papers involving uranium. It holds about 12% of the element's recent research, a share that is steady compared to the previous period. A notable recent contribution is a 2025 study in Separation and Purification Technology on separating uranium from lanthanides via aluminum electrodes, cited about 22 times.

The third material community is Uranyl Coordination Chemistry and Nuclear Fuel Materials. This work involves the synthesis and structural characterization of uranyl complexes and nitrate salts, alongside thorium-uranium interactions in nuclear fuel contexts. Uranium is a minor presence in this much larger community, with about 9% of its papers involving uranium. It represents about 8% of the element's recent research, a share that is steady. A standout paper is a 2023 article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on near-unity energy transfer from uranyl to europium, cited over 120 times.

Overall, the composition of uranium research is consolidating around extraction and recovery, which gained share, while fuel design and coordination chemistry held steady. The remaining 34% of research belongs to other communities that are too small to name individually.

The most cited paper in the window is a 2025 work on the ecotoxicology of metals in invertebrates, cited over 700 times, which belongs to the heavy metal toxicity community.

For a deeper look at uranium's current standing, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.