title: Longest words

text: The free dictionary, which has been certified by the Dutch Language Union (the official Dutch language institute) and is included in many open-source applications, contains the following longest words, which are 40 letters long:


title: Longest words

text: The word often said to be the longest in Dutch – probably because of its funny meaning and alliteration – which has also appeared in print, is ("construction ground for the Hottentot soldiers' tents exhibition"); counting 53 letters.


title: Longest words

text: The 45-letter word is the longest English word that appears in a major dictionary. Originally coined to become a candidate for the longest word in English, the term eventually developed some independent use in medicine. It is referred to as "P45" by researchers.


title: Longest words

text: The 30-letter word pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism refers to an inherited disorder, named for its similarity to pseudohypoparathyroidism in presentation, which is in turn named for its similarity to hypoparathyroidism. This is the longest word that was not contrived with the sole intention of becoming the longest word.


title: Longest words

text: , at 29 letters and meaning the act of estimating something as being worth so little as to be practically valueless, or the habit of doing so, is the longest non-technical, coined word in Oxford Dictionaries of the English language.


title: Longest words

text: , at 28 letters, is the longest non-coined, non-systematic English word in Oxford Dictionaries. It refers to a 19th-century political movement that opposed the disestablishment of the Church of England as the state church of England.


title: Longest words

text: In German, whole numbers (smaller than 1 million) can be expressed as single words, which makes (777,777) a 65 letter word. In combination with or, as an inflected noun, , all numbers can be written as one word. A 79 letter word, , was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1972 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible. The word was the name of a prewar Viennese club for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the electrical division of the company named the , "Danube steam boat operation company".


title: Longest words

text: The longest word that is not created artificially as a longest-word record seems to be at 63 letters. The word means "law delegating beef label monitoring" but as of 2013, it was removed from the books because European Union regulations have changed and that particular law became obsolete, leading to news reports that Germany "had lost its longest word".


title: Longest words

text: In December 2016 the 51-letter word ("deferral of the second iteration of the federal presidential run-off election") was elected the Austrian Word of the Year 2016. The jury called it a "descriptive word" which "in terms of its content as well as its length, is a symbol and an ironic form of commentary for the political events of this year, characterized by the very long campaign for the presidential election, the challenges of the voting process, and its reiteration."


title: Longest words

text: In his comedy "Assemblywomen" (c. 392 BC), Aristophanes coined the 175-letter word (), a fictional food dish consisting of a combination of fish and other meat. The word is cited as the longest ancient Greek word ever written.


title: Longest words

text: The longest Hebrew word is the 19-letter-long (including vowels) (), which means "And when to our encyclopedias..." The Hebrew word (encyclopedia) is of a European origin.


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in Hebrew that doesn't originate from another language is , () which crudely means "And when, to our resentments/ grievances"


title: Longest words

text: The 11-letter-long (including vowels) () is the longest word to appear in the Hebrew Bible. - Its meaning is "And the satraps". It also does not originate from Hebrew.


title: Longest words

text: Hindi has a finite list of compound words which are based on established grammatical rules of the language. The word commonly cited as the longest in Hindi is (), which consists of 24 consonants and 10 vowel diacritics, making up a total of 34 characters. The word literally means "a green railway warning signboard made of copper-iron". Its plural would be (), which has an additional vowel and a diacritic. It is a neologism and not in common use.


title: Longest words

text: A much smaller word borrowed from Sanskrit which is in common use and is also often cited as the longest word is (). It consists of 8 consonants and 5 vowel diacritics, making up a total of 13 characters. The word literally means "confused about what to do", meaning to be bewildered or flabbergasted.


title: Longest words

text: Icelandic has the ability to form compounds of arbitrary length by stringing together genitives (), so no single words of maximal length exist in the language. However, and are sometimes cited as particularly long words; the latter has 64 letters and means "a keychain ring for the outdoor key of road workers shed in a moor called Vaðlaheiði".


title: Longest words

text: Analysis of a corpus of contemporary Icelandic texts by Uwe Quasthoff, Sabine Fiedler and Erla Hallsteinsdóttir identified ("of the International Transport Workers' Federation"; 37 letters) and ("of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries' Organization"; 45 letters) as the longest unhyphenated and hyphenated words.


title: Longest words

text: The longest word occurring at least twice in the University of Leipzig "isl-is_web_2015" corpus is (110 letters).


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in Italian is traditionally , which is a 26-letter-long adverb. It is formed by subsequent addition of postfixes to the original root:


title: Longest words

text: The word is never used in every-day language, but in jokes. Nevertheless, it is an official part of Italian language; it was coined in 1677 by poet Francesco Moneti:


title: Longest words

text: The word technically violates Italian grammar rules, the correct form being , which is three letters and one syllable shorter. The poet coined the new word to have 11 syllables in the second verse.


title: Longest words

text: Other words can be created with a similar (and grammatically correct) mechanism starting from a longer root, winding up with a longer word. Some examples are:


title: Longest words

text: Láadan is not agglutinating as there is no mechanism to combine arbitrary words into one without intermediating grammatical mechanisms (such as the ); however, there are a number of affixes that further elucidate the contextual meaning of a word. These are ignored when determining the longest words in the language. The primary reference for vocabulary is the 3rd edition of the official dictionary and grammar.


title: Longest words

text: The longest attested word in Classical Latin is subductisupercilicarptor, which was coined by the obscure poet Laevius in the 1st century. In Medieval Latin, the longest known word is , which was first attested in a treatise written by the 8th century Grammarian Peter of Pisa. One can further increase the length of the words by adding the Dative plural case to them, which would result in the words and respectively.


title: Longest words

text: The Māori-language 85-letter place name is the longest place name in English-speaking countries and second longest in the world, according to "Wises New Zealand Guide" and "The New Zealand Herald".


title: Longest words

text: Very long Polish words can be created as adjectives from numerals and nouns. For example, , 54 letters, is the genitive singular form of an adjective meaning roughly "of nine-hundred and ninety-nine nationalities". Similar words are rather artificial compounds, constructed within allowed grammar rules, but are seldom used in spoken language, although they are not nonsense words. It is possible to make even longer words in this way, for example:


title: Longest words

text: One of the longest common words is 31-letter – the dative singular form of "ninety-and-some years old one". Another known long word is (32 letters), "a daughter of a man who lives in Constantinople" and (23 letters), "a 50 groszy coin".


title: Longest words

text: The longest Romanian word is , with 44 letters, but the longest one admitted by the ("Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language", DEX) is , with 25 letters.


title: Longest words

text: Most likely one of the longest Russian words is a chemical term (), which contains 55 letters. It was used in Russian patent RU2285004C2 (granted and published in 2006). This word is an adjective that can describe e.g. a chemical formula. As a noun it's without the last 4 letters.


title: Longest words

text: Another one is (), which contains 35 letters. It is an adjective in the bureaucratic language of the 19th century "meaning a very polite form of addressing clerks, something like Your Excellency, Your Highness, Your Majesty all together" (Guinness World Records 2003). Its dative singular form, (, with 36 letters) can be an example of excessively official vocabulary of the 19th century.


title: Longest words

text: Numeral compounds can be long as well, such as (), which is an adjective containing 46 letters, meaning "1889-micrometers long".


title: Longest words

text: Sanskrit allows word compounding of arbitrary length. Nouns and verbs can be expressed in a sentence.


title: Longest words

text: from the Varadāmbikā Pariṇaya Campū by Tirumalāmbā, composed of 195 Sanskrit letters (428 letters in the roman transliteration, dashes excluded), thus making it the longest word ever to appear in worldwide literature.


title: Longest words

text: Traditionally, the word ("of the least cultivable", 31 letters) is considered as the longest Slovak word, but there are some longer artificial words. Most of them are compound adjectives in dative, instrumental or other grammatical case and derived from the iterative or frequentative verbal form or the ability adjective form (like -able).


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in Spanish is (inflammation of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, 30 letters). Runners-up are ([proceeding in a manner that is] contrary to the constitution) and (specialists that do electrical scans on brains (electroencephalographists)), both 23 letters.


title: Longest words

text: The word is usually considered the longest word "in general use". This word can be made even longer by the addition of the absolute superlative suffix, rendering (i.e.: "very strongly against the constitution"). Some dictionaries (but not the RAE dictionary) removed its root word () in 2005, causing comments about it not "being a valid word anymore" and suggesting the use of as a replacement.


title: Longest words

text: (28 letters) is the longest word in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista. It means "capital gains taxation", and is usually shortened to (same meaning).


title: Longest words

text: However, Swedish grammar makes it possible to create arbitrarily long words. One such word is (94 letters) which means: "[belonging to] The manager of the depot for the supply of uniforms to the personnel of the track cleaners' union of the tramway company".


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in Toki Pona is (15 letters), which was proposed in 2009 as an April Fools' joke by the language's creator Sonja Lang as a word for any animal of the Procyonidae family, which includes raccoons and related species. The word has since entered into common use, and it has become common to define more broadly as any animal from the Musteloidea superfamily. In 2019 James Flear designed a glyph for in Toki Pona's writing system, which has become a popular icon within the Toki Pona community.


title: Longest words

text: As a minimalistic isolating constructed language, most words in Toki Pona are much shorter, the median being 4 letters. The longest words featured in the 2014 book "Toki Pona: The Language of Good", Lang's first official Toki Pona publication, are the 7-letter words ("to use, by means of") and ("symbol, picture"). The list of proposed country names in the same book also mentions ("Papua New Guinea"), which includes a 14-letter proper adjective.


title: Longest words

text: Vietnamese is an isolating language, which naturally limits the length of a morpheme. The longest, at seven letters, is , which means "inclined" or "to lean". This is the longest word that can be written without a space. However, not all words in Vietnamese are single morphemes. Indeed, can be reduplicated as .


title: Longest words

text: The written language abounds with compound words in which each constituent word is delimited by spaces, just like any freestanding word. Moreover, the grammar lacks inflection to mark parts of speech, and prepositions are often optional. Therefore, the boundary between a word and a phrase is poorly defined. Examples of this ambiguity include:


title: Longest words

text: Unlike locally coined compound words, compound words in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary are less ambiguous, because of the use of premodifiers (as in English) as opposed to the native postmodifiers. Long Sino-Vietnamese words include ("encyclopedia") and ("hydrodynamics").


title: Longest words

text: Loanwords and pronunciation respellings from other languages can also result in long words. For example, "consortium" is (12 letters), and "Indonesia" may be left as-is or spelled (13 counting hyphens). The "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam" systematically respells foreign names, introducing long names into an official Vietnamese lexicon:


title: Longest words

text: In modern Vietnamese, compound words can be identified fairly easily within title cased text: a morpheme that begins with a capital letter followed by one or more morphemes that begin with a lowercase letter. For example, ("socialism") is capitalized as one component within .


title: Longest words

text: , a railway station on the island of Anglesey in Wales, is the longest place name in the Welsh language. At 51 letters in the Welsh alphabet (the digraphs and are each collated as single letters) the name can be translated as "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave". However, it was artificially contrived in the 1860s as a publicity stunt, to give the station the longest name of any railway station in the United Kingdom.


title: Longest words

text: Long words are comparatively rare in Welsh. Candidates for long words other than proper nouns include the following (the digraph is also treated as a single letter, as is in many instances including in the last word below):


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Ryan W. Ferguson (born October 19, 1984) is an American man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high-school student.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Kent Heitholt was found beaten and strangled shortly after 2 a.m. on November 1, 2001, in the parking lot of the "Columbia Daily Tribune", where he worked as a sports editor. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip about a man named Charles Erickson who had spent that evening partying with Ferguson. Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and was concerned that he may have been involved in it. Despite failing to recall having killed Heitholt, Erickson eventually confessed and implicated Ferguson in the crime as well. Ferguson was convicted in the fall of 2005 on the basis of Erickson's testimony as well as that of a building employee.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Both witnesses later recanted their testimony, claiming that police and prosecuting attorney Kevin Crane, now a circuit court judge, had coerced them to lie. The 2005 conviction was vacated on November 5, 2013, by the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, and Ferguson was released on the evening of November 12 after spending nearly a decade in prison. He won $11 million in a civil suit against Missouri police.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: The case has been featured on "48 Hours", "Dateline" and in numerous other newspapers and media outlets.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In the early morning hours of November 1, 2001, 48-year-old Kent Heitholt was murdered in the parking lot of the "Columbia Daily Tribune", where he worked as a sports editor. He was last seen alive by co-worker Michael Boyd, who told police that he had a work-related conversation with Heitholt in the parking lot between 2:12 and 2:20 a.m.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Minutes later, janitor Shawna Ornt stepped outside for a cigarette break and saw two shadowy figures near Heitholt's car. She ran back inside to get her supervisor, Jerry Trump. Both janitors witnessed two college-age men near Heitholt's car. The janitors reported that one of the men yelled "Someone's hurt out here, man" before both men walked away through a nearby alley. The janitors notified other employees and called 9-1-1 at 2:26 a.m. Heitholt was found severely beaten with a blunt object and strangled.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: On the same evening, 17-year-old high-school junior Ryan Ferguson and classmate Charles Erickson were attending Halloween parties in the area. Ferguson and Erickson later proceeded to meet Ferguson's sister at a bar called By George, where a bouncer who worked there would admit them despite their age. After the two men had spent all of their money at the bar, Ferguson's sister bought them a few additional drinks before they departed.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Erickson was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol that night, and the following day, he had no memory of what had happened. At a later hearing, attorneys asked Erickson whether he had noticed anything unusual on the morning of Nov. 1, such as injuries or blood on his clothing, but he stated that he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Ornt told police that she got a good look at the young men, while Trump reported that he was unable to see them clearly. Police recovered unidentified fingerprints on and inside Heitholt's car, as well as an unidentified hair in his hand. Police also recovered footprints from the blood at the crime scene. Ornt provided police with a description of the men and a composite sketch was drawn.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: The crime had been unsolved for two years when, in October 2003, local media again covered the murder. Erickson had reportedly experienced several dreams about the crime after having seen a newspaper article, and a few days later, Erickson asked Ferguson whether Ferguson believed that Erickson may have been involved in the murder. "It was crazy that someone had been murdered a couple blocks away from where we had been partying," replied Erickson. Ferguson reassured him that he was not involved in the crime. Erickson says that over time, he began to increasingly ponder the murder and the fact that he could not remember that evening.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In November 2003, Erickson read an article in the local newspaper that included a sketch of a possible suspect. Erickson thought that the sketch resembled him and became more concerned. He told friends Nick Gilpin and Art Figueroa about his worries and they notified police.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In the recorded interrogation, Erickson seems to have little knowledge of the crime. He told police, "It's just so foggy... I could be sitting here fabricating all of it." At one point he was asked questions about the weapon used to strangle Heitholt. Erickson replied that he thought it was a shirt. When the police officer told him that it was not, he replied, "Maybe a bungee cord?" Eventually the officer told Erickson that the weapon was Heitholt's own belt. Erickson replied, "I don't remember that at all." After much prodding by investigators, Erickson eventually told them that he and Ferguson robbed Heitholt for drinking money. In March 2004, Erickson and Ferguson were arrested and charged with the murder.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: The government offered Erickson a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Ferguson at his trial, which took place in 2005. Along with Erickson, Trump testified that he had seen Erickson and Ferguson at the scene. Trump testified that while he was in jail on unrelated charges, his wife sent him a news article about the crime. He claims that as he removed the newspaper from the envelope, he saw photos of Erickson and Ferguson and immediately recognized them as the two men standing over Heitholt on the evening of the murder.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: When on the witness stand, Erickson provided a detailed description of Ferguson strangling Heitholt despite not remembering any details following the murder and during the interrogation. The defense countered that all of the evidence found at the crime scene pointed elsewhere. None of the hair, blood or fingerprint samples collected at the crime scene were consistent with those of Ferguson or Erickson, and no traces of the victim's blood were found in the vehicle that Ferguson was driving the night of the murder. Ferguson was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 40 years in prison.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Following the conviction, Ferguson gained a following with wrongful-conviction advocacy groups. In 2009, high-profile Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner took over Ferguson's case, working pro bono. In 2012, both Erickson and Trump recanted their trial testimony in statements obtained by Zellner and her investigator. In the subsequent "habeas corpus" hearing, both Erickson and Trump admitted that they had lied at Ferguson's trial.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Erickson claimed that prosecutor Kevin Crane pressured him into implicating Ferguson. Erickson testified in the "habeas" hearing that he could not remember the evening of the murder because he was so intoxicated with drugs and alcohol that night that he had blacked out, causing his anterograde amnesia.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Trump recanted the story about his wife sending him the newspaper article and claimed that Crane had pressured him into testifying against Ferguson, saying that he had first seen the newspaper photos in 2004 at the prosecutor's office after he was released from prison. "On more than one occasion, he said 'I've got the right two guys' — almost like a cheerleader," Trump said, also alleging that Crane had showed him a "Tribune" newspaper with Ferguson's photo and that Crane mentioned that it would be "helpful" for Trump to identify Ferguson as having been at the crime scene.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Michael Boyd, the last person to have seen Heitholt alive in the parking lot, was also called as a witness. When questioning Boyd, Zellner elicited a timeline from him that placed him with Heitholt at the time of the murder. The court cited these critical admissions in its opinion. Boyd's five conflicting stories were known before the hearing, but he had never been called as a sworn witness in any court proceeding regarding the case.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Zellner filed an original writ of "habeas corpus" with the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, citing a number of flaws in the criminal trial. Notable among these was proof that the prosecution committed "Brady" violations by withholding evidence from the defense team. While questioning prosecution investigators at the "habeas corpus" hearing, Zellner's law partner Douglas Johnson uncovered that during an interview with Trump's wife, she had told investigators that she did not remember having sent him any newspapers. This interview was not disclosed to the original defense team. The Court of Appeals described "a pattern of non-disclosures" by the police and prosecutors that contributed to Ferguson's conviction.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Janitor Shawna Ornt, who witnessed two men fleeing the parking lot, testified that she had told Crane that the man whom she had seen on the night of the murder was not Ferguson. She claimed that Crane had repeatedly tried to induce her to implicate Ferguson and that Crane became threatening during her last conversation with him. Despite being the sole witness who had reported that she could identify the men at the scene, Ornt was never asked in court whether she could identify Ferguson. Zellner alleged that the prosecution did not ask Ornt to identify Ferguson because they knew that her answer would hurt their case.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Other evidence that had been withheld from the original defense team was related to the timeframe of the murder and Ferguson's and Erickson's movements during the evening. Erickson had testified at Ferguson's original trial that following the murder, he and Ferguson returned to the bar around 2:45 a.m. and were admitted by the same bouncer, Mike Schook, who had admitted them earlier. Erickson claimed on the stand that he and Ferguson had left the bar between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m. However, Schook testified that the bar had closed at 1:30 that morning, and bar patron Kim Bennett testified that Erickson and Ferguson departed between 1:15 and 1:30 a.m., disproving Erickson's claims that they had returned to the bar following the murder.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Ferguson's conviction was vacated in November 2013 on the basis that the prosecution had withheld evidence from the defense team. Following the reversal, the state attorney general announced that he did not plan to refile charges against Ferguson because Ferguson had presented overwhelming evidence of his innocence in his "habeas corpus" petition; a mere "Brady" violation would not have prevented a retrial. The case remains unsolved, and in 2013 the police said that they are considering reopening the case.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: On March 11, 2014, Ferguson filed a civil suit against 11 individuals as well as Boone County, Missouri and the city of Columbia in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The suit alleged suppression of exculpatory evidence, fabrication of evidence, reckless or intentional failure to investigate, malicious prosecution, conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights, false arrest and defamation. The suit also claimed that following Ferguson's release, former prosecutor Kevin Crane and former Columbia police chief Randy Boehm harmed Ferguson by continuing to make statements about his guilt. The defendants included several police officers as well as Crane. Ultimately, all defendants were dismissed except for six police officers.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In an October 2020 settlement hearing, a judge awarded Ferguson $11 million—$1 million for each year that he had spent in prison and $1 million for legal expenses. In the hearing, attorneys for the city compared the settlement to an Alford plea—not admitting liability, but admitting enough evidence exists that they would likely lose in court.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Ferguson's case has been cited by the National Registry of Exonerations as an exoneration. The charges against him were dismissed because, as the Western District Appellate Court pointed out in its decision, there was no evidence left that would support a conviction.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Charles Erickson remains imprisoned for the crime. He is serving a 25-year sentence in exchange for testifying against Ferguson. Despite the fact that Erickson had implicated him in the crime, Ferguson has vowed to help Erickson with his release from prison. "There are more innocent people in prison, including Erickson... I know that he was used and manipulated and I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He needs help, he needs support, he doesn't belong in prison," Ferguson said. The Ferguson family has offered a $10,000 reward for tips that may solve the case.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Erickson filed an appeal in December 2018, which the court denied because he had already confessed to the crime. In June 2020, Erickson filed for a rehearing.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In September 2013, the first book about the Ryan Ferguson case was released: "Free Ryan Ferguson: 101 Reasons Why Ryan Ferguson Should Be Released", by Brian D'Ambrosio. The book details allegations of police misconduct and intimidation by prosecutor Kevin Crane. There are also accounts of bogus police reports and alleged witnesses claiming that affidavits against Ferguson were signed in their names. D'Ambrosio proposes alternate theories and examines the allegations against Michael Boyd, the final person to speak with the victim. The case has been featured on "48 Hours", "Dateline" and in numerous other newspapers and media outlets.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: A documentary titled "dream/killer" detailing the case and Bill Ferguson's journey to free his son debuted at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. It aired in August 2016 as a two-hour special on the Investigation Discovery network.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: Soon after he was arrested, Ferguson began devoting his time to fitness and health and became a certified personal trainer. "I know you're innocent, but while you're in there, I can't protect you," his father told him four days after his arrest in 2004, "You have to do everything you can to make yourself stronger, faster, and smarter to survive." Ferguson began exercising and lifting weights while in prison.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In April 2016, it was announced that Ferguson would host an MTV series entitled "Unlocking the Truth", a serialized documentary following other cases of possible wrongful conviction.


title: Ryan W. Ferguson

text: In 2022, Ferguson was a contestant on "The Amazing Race 33" with his friend Dusty Harris. His team finished in 3rd Place.


title: Mount Hermon

text: Mount Hermon ( / ALA-LC: "Jabal al-Shaykh" ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or "Jabal Haramun"; , "Har Hermon") is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, known as "Hermon Hotel", located at 2814 metres altitude. The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 metres (6,690 ft). A peak in this area rising to 2,236 m (7,336 ft) is the highest elevation in Israeli-controlled territory.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The Anti-Lebanon range, of which the Hermon range constitutes the southernmost part, extends for approximately in a northeast–southwest direction, running parallel to the Lebanon range on the west.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The relatively narrow Hermon range, with the Lebanon-Syria boundary along its spine, extends for 70 km, from 25 km northeast of Mt. Hermon to 45 km southwest of it. The Hermon range covers an area of about of which about are under Israeli control. Mount Hermon is a cluster of mountains with three distinct summits, each about the same height. Most of the portion of Mount Hermon within the Israeli-controlled area constitutes the Hermon nature reserve.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The mountain forms one of the greatest geographic resources of the area. Because of its height it captures a great deal of precipitation in a very dry area of the world. The Jurassic limestone is broken by faults and solution channels to form a karst topography. Mount Hermon has seasonal winter and spring snow falls, which cover all three of its peaks for most of the year. Melt water from the snow-covered mountain's western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain, which form streams and rivers. These merge to become the Jordan River. Additionally, the runoff facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyards and pine, oak, and poplar trees are abundant.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The springs, and the mountain itself, are much contested by the nations of the area for the use of the water. Mount Hermon is also called the "snowy mountain," the "gray-haired mountain", and the "mountain of snow". It is also called "the eyes of the nation" in Israel because its elevation makes it Israel's primary strategic early warning system.


title: Mount Hermon

text: Mount Hermon's name has been related to the Semitic root "ḥrm", which means "taboo" or "consecrated", and the Arabic term "al-ḥaram", which means "sacred enclosure".


title: Mount Hermon

text: The Epic of Gilgamesh mentions that Mount Hermon split after Gilgamesh killed Humbaba, the Guardian of the Cedar Forest. One translation of Tablet V states, "The ground split open with the heels of their feet, as they whirled around in circles Mt. Hermon and Lebanon split."


title: Mount Hermon

text: The mountain or summit is referred to as Saphon in Ugaritic texts where the palace of Ba'al is located in a myth about Attar.


title: Mount Hermon

text: In Deuteronomy and Joshua and , Mount Hermon is depicted as the northern boundary of the Amorite kingdom, which following the conquest by Joshua was awarded to the half-tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan River.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The Hebrew Bible uses three names for Mount Hermon, stating in Deut 3:9 that "the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Senir", but elsewhere () seems to distinguish between Senir and Hermon, probably using the names for two of the three peaks of the Hermon range, while in the Hebrew text uses the plural form, Hermonim, possibly also a reference to the three peaks.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The Book of Chronicles mentions Mount Hermon as a place where Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel were the heads of their families ().


title: Mount Hermon

text: In Psalm 42, which leads the Psalms of the northern kingdom, the Psalmist remembers God from the land of Jordan and the Hermonites. In , Hermon is an instance of an exotic locale, and Psalm 133, one of the Songs of Ascents, makes specific reference to the abundant dew formation upon Mount Hermon. The Book of Ezekiel (27:5), meanwhile, praises its cypresses (referring to it by its alternate name Senir (cf. Deut. 3:9).


title: Mount Hermon

text: In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, Mount Hermon is the place where the Watcher class of fallen angels descended to Earth. They swear upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men and take mutual imprecation for their sin ().


title: Mount Hermon

text: According to the controversial research by Professor Israel Knohl of the Hebrew University, in his book "Hashem", Mount Hermon is actually the Mount Sinai mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, with the biblical story reminiscent of an ancient battle of the northern tribes with the Egyptians somewhere in the Jordan valley or Golan heights.


title: Mount Hermon

text: R.T. France, in his book on the Gospel of Matthew, noted that Mount Hermon was a possible location of the Transfiguration of Jesus, just


title: Mount Hermon

text: There is a sacred building made of hewn blocks of stone on the summit of Mount Hermon. Known as Qasr Antar, it is the highest temple of the ancient world and was documented by Sir Charles Warren in 1869. An inscription on a limestone stele recovered by Warren from Qasr Antar was translated by George Nickelsburg to read "According to the command of the greatest a(nd) Holy God, those who take an oath (proceed) from here." Nickelsburg connected the inscription with the oath taken by the angels under Semjaza who took an oath together, bound by a curse, in order to take human wives in the Book of Enoch (). Hermon was said to have become known as "the mountain of oath" by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau. The name of God was supposed to be a Hellenized version of Baʿal or Hadad and Nickelsburg connected it with the place name of Baal-Hermon (Lord of Hermon) and the deity given by Enoch as "The Great Holy One".


title: Mount Hermon

text: Another Greek inscription found in a large temple at Deir El Aachayer on the northern slopes notes the year that a bench was installed "in the year 242, under Beeliabos, also called Diototos, son of Abedanos, high priest of the gods of Kiboreia". The era of the gods of Kiboreia is not certain, nor is their location, which is not conclusively to be identified with Deir al-Achayer, but was possibly the Roman sanctuary or the name of a settlement in the area.


title: Mount Hermon

text: Eusebius recognized the religious importance of Hermon in his work "Onomasticon" (probably written in the first quarter of the 4th century), saying "Until today, the mount in front of Banias and Lebanon is known as Hermon and it is respected by nations as a sanctuary".


title: Mount Hermon

text: This part was regained by Syria on October 6, 1973, the first day of the Yom Kippur War, following the First Battle of Mount Hermon. After being repelled in the Second Battle of Mount Hermon, the IDF recaptured both the formerly Israeli-occupied sector and the pre-Yom Kippur War Syrian-controlled sector on October 21, 1973, during Operation Dessert, also known as the Third battle of Mount Hermon.


title: Mount Hermon

text: The Israeli-occupied sector of the mountain became patrolled by the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police, and the Israeli Security Forces have maintained a strategic observation post for monitoring Syrian and Lebanese military activity near Mitzpe Shlagim ("Snow Lookout"), which is at an elevation of about 2,224 m (7,300 ft). Its neighboring peak, at , is the highest elevation in Israeli-occupied territory.


title: Mount Hermon

text: Since the onset of Syrian Civil War, the Syrian-controlled Hermon has continued to be under pro-government forces, though clashes have sporadically erupted on the mountain range and spilled into Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied portion. Most notably the Islamist rebel factions of Jaish al-Haramoun took part in the fighting on the Southern slopes of the mountain.


title: Mount Hermon

text: Since 1981, when the Golan Heights Law was passed, the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights has been governed under Israeli law. Mount Hermon hosts the only ski resort in territory held by Israel, including a wide range of ski trails at novice, intermediate, and expert levels. It also offers additional winter family activities such as sledding and Nordic skiing. Those who operate the Hermon Ski area live in the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Ativ and the Druze town of Majdal Shams. The ski resort has a ski school, ski patrol, and several restaurants located at either the bottom or peak of the area.


title: Mount Hermon

text: In 2005, the Syrian government had plans to develop a 15-billion-dollar ski resort on the slopes of the mountain.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel voting system.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Originally located in Nanking, the Legislative Yuan, along with the National Assembly (electoral college) and the Control Yuan (upper house), formed the tricameral parliament under the original 1947 Constitution. The Legislative Yuan previously had 759 members representing each constituencies of all provinces, municipalities, Tibet, Outer Mongolia and various professions.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Until democratization, the Republic of China was an authoritarian state under Dang Guo, the Legislative Yuan had alternatively been characterized as a rubber stamp for the then-ruling regime of the Kuomintang. Like parliaments or congresses of other countries, the Legislative Yuan is responsible for the passage of legislation, which is then sent to the President for signing. For these similarities, it is also common for people to refer to the Legislative Yuan as "the parliament" ().


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Under the current amended Constitution and in accordance with the separation of powers, the Legislative Yuan, as the only parliamentary body, also holds the power to initiate several constitutional processes, including initiating constitutional amendments (then determined by a national referendum), recalls of the President (then determined by a recall vote), and impeachments of the President (then tried by the Constitutional Court).


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Starting with the 2008 legislative elections, changes were made to the Legislative Yuan in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed in 2005. The Legislative Yuan has 113 members serving four-year terms. The current Legislative Yuan was inaugurated on February 1, 2020 and its term expires on January 31, 2024.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The 5 largest parties with 3 seats or more can form caucuses. If there are fewer than 5 such parties, legislators in other parties or with no party affiliation can form caucuses with at least 4 members.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The "President" and "Vice President" of the Legislative Yuan are elected by the 113 legislators during a preparatory session in the beginning of their 4-year terms. "President" and "Vice President" of the Legislative Yuan sometimes translate to "speaker" and "deputy speaker" respectively in English.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Like parliaments or congresses of other countries, the Legislative Yuan holds the following power according to the current amended Constitution


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Other governmental organs are authorized to propose legislative bills to the Legislative Yuan. Legislative bills proposed to the Legislative Yuan have to be cosigned by a certain number of legislators. Once a bill reaches the legislature, it is subject to a process of three readings.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The concept of Legislative Yuan was introduced by Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People". The theory proposed a separation of powers into five branches (). The Legislative Yuan, under Sun's political theory, is a branch of government elected by the National Assembly that serves as the standing legislative body when the National Assembly is not in session.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The legislators are to be elected through direct elections. In the constitution, Legislative Yuan, together with National Assembly and Control Yuan, form three chambers of a tricameral parliament according to the Judicial Yuan's interpretation number 76 of the Constitution (1957).


title: Legislative Yuan

text: However, the later constitutional amendments in the 1990s removed the parliamentary roles from National Assembly and Control Yuan and transferred them to the Legislative Yuan, which became an unicameral parliament.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The original Legislative Yuan was formed in the original capital of Nanking after the completion of the Northern Expedition. Its 51 members were appointed to a term of two years. The 4th Legislative Yuan under this period had its members expanded to 194, and its term in office was extended to 14 years because of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). According to KMT political theory, these first four sessions marked the period of political tutelage.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The current Constitution of the Republic of China came into effect on 25 December 1947, and the first Legislative session convened in Nanking on 18 May 1948, with 760 members. Six preparatory meetings had been held on 8 May 1948, during which Sun Fo and Chen Li-fu were elected president and vice president of the body. In 1949, the mainland fell to the Communist Party and the Legislative Yuan (along with the entire ROC government) was transplanted to Taipei. On 24 February 1950, 380 members convened at the Sun Yat-sen Hall in Taipei.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The first Legislative Yuan was to have been elected for a term of three years ending in 1951; however, the fall of mainland China made it impossible to hold new elections. As a result, the Judicial Yuan decided that the members of the Legislative Yuan would continue to hold office until new elections could be held on the Mainland. This decision was made in the belief that the KMT would retake the Mainland in a short time. However, over the years, as the prospect of regaining the Mainland diminished, this meant that the legislators from mainland districts (and members of the ruling KMT) held their seats for life, in a one-party system. The body thus came to be called "the Non-reelected Congress".


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Over the years, deceased members elected on the mainland were not replaced while additional seats were created for Taiwan starting with eleven seats in 1969. Fifty-one new members were elected to a three-year term in 1972, fifty-two in 1975, ninety-seven in 1980, ninety-eight in 1983, one hundred in 1986, and one hundred thirty in 1989. Although the elected members of the Legislative Yuan did not have the majority to defeat legislation, they were able to use the Legislative Yuan as a platform to express political dissent. Opposition parties were formally illegal until 1991, but in the 1970s candidates to the Legislative Yuan would run as Tangwai ("outside the party"), and in 1985 candidates began to run under the banner of the Democratic Progressive Party.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The members of the Legislative Yuan with extended terms remained until 31 December 1991, when as part of subsequent Judicial Yuan ruling they were forced to retire and the members elected in 1989 remained until the 161 members of the Second Legislative Yuan were elected in December 1992. The third LY, elected in 1995, had 157 members serving 3-year terms. The fourth LY, elected in 1998, was expanded to 225 members in part to include legislators from the abolished provincial legislature of Taiwan Province.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The Legislative Yuan greatly increased its prominence after the 2000 Presidential elections in Taiwan when the Executive Yuan and presidency was controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party while the Legislative Yuan had a large majority of Kuomintang members. The legislative elections in late 2001 produced a contentious situation in which the pan-blue coalition has only a thin majority over the governing pan-green coalition in the legislature, making the passage of bills often dependent on the votes of a few defectors and independents. Because of the party situation there have been constitutional conflicts between the Legislative Yuan and the executive branch over the process of appointment for the premier and whether the president has the power to call a special session.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Amid 70% public support, the Legislative Yuan voted 217–1 on 23 August 2004 for a package of amendments to:


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The new electoral system installed in 2008 includes 73 plurality seats (one for each electoral district), 6 seats for aboriginals, with the remaining 34 seats to be filled from party lists. Every county has a minimum of 1 electoral district, thereby guaranteed at least one seat in the legislature, while half of the proportionally represented seats drawn from party lists must be women.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Additionally, the Legislative Yuan proposed to abolish the National Assembly. Future amendments would still be proposed by the LY by a three-fourths vote from a quorum of at least three-fourths of all members of the Legislature. After a mandatory 180-day promulgation period, the amendment would have to be ratified by an absolute majority of "all" eligible voters of the ROC "irrespective" of voter turnout. The latter requirement would allow a party to kill a referendum proposal by asking that their voters boycott the vote as was done by the KMT with the referendums associated with the 2004 Presidential Election.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: A DPP proposal to allow the citizens the right to initiate constitutional referendums was pulled off the table, due to a lack of support. The proposal was criticized for dangerously lowering the threshold for considering a constitutional amendment. Whereas a three-fourths vote of the LY would require that any proposed constitutional amendment have a broad political consensus behind it, a citizen's initiative would allow a fraction of the electorate to force a constitutional referendum. It was feared that allowing this to occur would result in a referendum on Taiwan independence which would likely result in a crisis with the People's Republic of China.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The Legislative Yuan also proposed to give itself the power to summon the president for an annual "state of the nation" address and launch a recall of the president and vice president (proposed by one fourth and approved by two thirds of the legislators and be submitted to a nationwide referendum for approval or rejection by majority vote). The Legislative Yuan will also have the power to propose the impeachment of the president or vice president to the Council of Grand Justices.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: An "ad hoc" National Assembly was elected and formed in 2005 to ratify the amendments. The downsized Legislative Yuan took effect after the 2008 elections.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949, the year following the first legislative elections (1948) after the enactment of the 1947 constitution. As the Kuomintang government continues to claim sovereignty over Mainland China, the term of the original legislators was extended until "re-election is possible in their original electoral districts." In response to the increasing democracy movement in Taiwan, limited supplementary elections were held in Taiwan starting from 1969 and parts of Fujian from 1972. Legislators elected in these supplementary elections served together with those who were elected in 1948. This situation remained until a Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan) ruling on 21 June 1991 that ordered the retirement of all members with extended terms by the end of 1991.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The legislature had 225 members during the 4th, 5th, and 6th terms. Legislators were elected as follows:


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The Kuomintang (KMT) held a supermajority of seats in the Legislative Yuan between 1948 and 1991, while some seats were held by the Chinese Youth Party (CYP) and the China Democratic Socialist Party (CDSP). Through the limited supplementary elections held in since the 1970s, the Tangwai movement saw their share of seats increase. Most members in the Tangwai movement joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after its founding in the late 1980s.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: Much of the work of the Legislative Yuan is done via legislative committees, and a common sight on Taiwanese television involves officials of the executive branch answering extremely hostile questions from opposition members in committees. In the 1990s, there were a number of cases of violence breaking out on the floor, usually triggered by some perceived unfair procedure ruling, but in recent years, these have become less common. There was a brawl involving 50 legislators in January 2007 and an incident involving 40 legislators on 8 May 2007 when a speaker attempted to speak about reconfiguring the Central Election Committee. It has been alleged that fights are staged and planned in advance. These antics led the scientific humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research" to award the Legislative Yuan its Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 "for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations". On 29 June 2020 more than 20 lawmakers affiliated with the Kuomintang took over the legislature over night, blocking entry to the main chamber with chains and chairs, saying the government was trying to force through legislation and demanding the president withdraw the nomination of a close aide to a high-level watchdog. Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers forced themselves in while there were scuffles and shouting with Kuomintang lawmakers.


title: Legislative Yuan

text: The current Legislative Yuan building in Taipei, was formerly the constructed during the Japanese colonial rule since 1960 with the administrative offices previously a dormitory. Over the years, there were several proposals to relocate the Legislative Yuan. The 1990 proposal to move the legislature to the location of the defunct Huashan station, was passed in 1992, then abandoned after the budget was cut. A second proposal in 1999 suggested that the legislature move to what had previously served as Air Force Command Headquarters. This proposition was opposed by the Taipei City Council and funds for disaster relief became a priority after the Jiji earthquake. Other relocation proposals include moving the parliament to Taichung, New Taipei, Changhua County, or Yilan County. In 2022, graduate students from several Taiwanese universities were invited to submit designs for a new building.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno (; ; c. 425 – 9 April 491) was Eastern Roman emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues. His reign saw the end of the Western Roman Empire following the deposition of Romulus Augustus and the death of Julius Nepos, but he was credited with contributing much to stabilising the Eastern Empire.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In ecclesiastical history, Zeno is associated with the "Henotikon" or "instrument of union", promulgated by him and signed by all the Eastern bishops, with the design of solving the monophysite controversy. The Henotikon was widely unpopular and eventually abandoned under Justin I.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno's original name was Tarasis, and more accurately "Tarasikodissa" in his native Isaurian language (). Tarasis was born in Isauria, Cilicia, at Rusumblada, later renamed Zenopolis in Zeno's honour. His father was called Kodisa (as attested by his patronymic "Tarasicodissa"), his mother Lallis, his brother Longinus. Tarasis had a wife, Arcadia, whose name indicates a relationship with the Constantinopolitan aristocracy, and whose statue was erected near the Baths of Arcadius, along the steps that led to Topoi. Near Eastern and other Christian traditions maintain that Zeno had two daughters, Hilaria and Theopiste, who followed a religious life, but historical sources attest the existence of only one son by Arcadia, called Zenon. According to ancient sources, Zeno's prestigious career—he had fought against Attila in 447 to defend Constantinople and been consul the following year—was the reason why another Isaurian officer, Tarasis, chose the Greek name Zeno when he married into the Imperial family, thus being known as Zeno when he rose to the throne. Some modern historians suggest that the Isaurian general Zeno was the father of the emperor, but there is no consensus about this, and other sources suggest that Tarasis was a member of Zeno's entourage. A Byzantine Princess, putative daughter of Flavius Zeno and first wife Arcadia, named Helen, married as his second wife Saint Vakhtang I Gorgasali, King of Iberia, and had issue.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The Isaurians were a people who lived inland from the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia, in the core of the Taurus Mountains (generally what is now the Konya/Bozkir area of Turkey). Like most borderland tribes, they were looked upon as barbarians by the Romans even though they had been Roman subjects for more than five centuries. However, being Orthodox Christians rather than Arians, as the Goths and other Germanic tribes were, they were not formally barred from the throne.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: According to some scholars, in the mid-460s, the Eastern Roman Emperor, Leo I, wanted to balance the weight of the Germanic component of the army, whose leader was the Alan "magister militum" Aspar. He thought that Tarasis and his Isaurians could be that counterweight, and called him, with many Isaurians, to Constantinople. This interpretation, however, has been contested. By the mid-460s, Arcadia and Zeno had been living at Constantinople for some time, where Lallis and Longinus also lived, the latter married to a Valeria, possibly a woman of aristocrat rank.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: According to ancient sources, the earliest reference to Tarasis dates back to 464, when he put his hands on some letters written by Aspar's son, Ardabur, which proved that the son of the "magister militum" had incited the Sassanid King to invade Roman territory, promising to support the invasion. Through these letters, which Tarasis gave to Leo, the Emperor could dismiss Ardabur, who at the time was "magister militum per Orientem" and "patricius", thus reducing Aspar's influence and ambition. As reward for his loyalty, which Leo praised to Daniel the Stylite, Tarasis was appointed "comes domesticorum", an office of great influence and prestige. This appointment could mean that Tarasis had been a "protector domesticus", either at Leo's court in Constantinople, or attached at Ardabur's staff in Antioch.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 465, Leo and Aspar quarrelled about the appointment of consuls for the following year; it was on this occasion that Tarasis' position was strengthened, as he became friend and ally of the Emperor.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: To make himself more acceptable to the Roman hierarchy and the population of Constantinople, Tarasis adopted the Greek name of Zeno and used it for the rest of his life. In mid-late 466, Zeno married Ariadne, elder daughter of Leo I and Verina; there is no reference to him divorcing Arcadia who evidently died prior to this. The next year their son was born, and Zeno became father of the heir apparent to the throne, as the only son of Leo I had died in his infancy; to stress his claim to the throne, the boy was called Leo. Zeno, however, was not present at the birth of his son, as in 467, he participated in a military campaign against the Goths.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno, as a member of the "protectores domestici", did not take part in the disastrous expedition against the Vandals, led in 468 by Leo's brother-in-law Basiliscus. The following year, during which he held the honour of the consulate, he was appointed "magister militum per Thracias" and led an expedition in Thrace. The sources do not clearly state what enemy he fought there, and historians had proposed either Goths or Huns, or the rebels of Anagastes. Either way, before leaving, Leo and Zeno asked for Daniel the Stylite's opinion about the campaign, and Daniel answered that Zeno would be the target of a conspiracy but would escape unharmed. Indeed, Leo sent some of his personal soldiers with Zeno to protect him, but they were bribed by Aspar to capture him instead. Zeno was informed of their intention and fled to Serdica, and, because of this episode, Leo grew even more suspicious of Aspar.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: After the attack, Zeno did not return to Constantinople, where Aspar and Ardabur were, still with considerable power. Instead, he moved to the "Long Wall" (the Long Wall of the Thracian Chersonese or, less probably, the Anastasian Wall), then to Pylai and from there to Chalcedon. While waiting here for an opportunity to return to the capital, he was appointed "magister militum per Orientem". He took the monk Peter the Fuller with him and left for Antioch, his office's see, passing through Isauria, where he put down the rebellion of Indacus. Zeno stayed at Antioch for two years.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: While living in Antioch with his family, Zeno sympathised with the Monophysite views of Peter the Fuller, and supported him against his opponent, the Chalcedonian bishop Martyrius. Zeno allowed the arrival in Antioch of monks from nearby monasteries who increased the number of Peter's followers, and did not effectively repress their violence. Martyrius went to Constantinople to ask Leo for help, but, on returning to Antioch, he was informed that Peter had been elected bishop, and resigned (470). Leo reacted by ordering Peter into exile and addressing to Zeno a law that forbade the monks from leaving their monasteries or fomenting rebellion (1 June 471). In 470/471, Zeno had also to deal with an invasion of Tzanni, who attacked Roman Armenia.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: With Zeno far from Constantinople, Aspar had increased his influence by having his son Patricius appointed "Caesar" and married to Leo I's younger daughter, Leontia (470). Sources are contradictory on the causes, but clearly state that in 471, Leo I had Aspar and Ardabur treacherously killed. This certainly occurred with Zeno's and Basiliscus' approval, as, on the eve of the murders, the two generals had moved closer to Constantinople (Zeno was at Chalcedon). Thereafter, Zeno returned to Constantinople and was appointed "magister militum praesentalis".


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In October 473, Leo I appointed as "Caesar" his grandson Leo II, the son of Zeno and Ariadne. On 18 January 474, Leo I died; if Leo II had not already been proclaimed co-emperor by his grandfather, he would have become "Augustus" on that occasion. Since Leo II was seven years old (too young to rule himself) Ariadne and her mother Verina prevailed upon him to crown Zeno, his father, as co-emperor, which he did on 29 January 474. When Leo II became ill and died, Zeno became sole emperor.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno had to settle matters with the Vandal King, Genseric, who was conducting raids against the Empire's coastal cities, threatening key commercial sea routes. Zeno sent Genseric a high-ranking officer as ambassador, Severus, who succeeded in stipulating an "eternal" peace between the Vandals and the Empire, which allowed the Romans to pay ransoms for the prisoners in Vandal hands and which ended the Vandal persecution of Orthodox Christians in their territory.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Despite this success, Zeno continued to be unpopular with the people and Senate because of his barbarian origins; his right to the throne was limited to his marriage with Ariadne and his relationship to Verina, the dowager Empress. Therefore, he chose to draw support from the Isaurian component of the army, in particular, the Isaurian generals Illus and Trocundes, both brothers. However, Verina decided to overthrow her son-in-law Zeno and replace him with her lover, the ex-"magister officiorum" Patricius, with the help of her brother Basiliscus. The conspirators fomented riots in the capital against the Isaurian emperor; Basiliscus succeeded also in convincing Illus, Trocundes and the Ostrogothic general Theodoric Strabo to join the plot.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: On 9 January 475, Zeno was forced to flee Constantinople to Isauria with his wife and mother, some Isaurian fellows and the Imperial treasure. Illus and Trocundes were sent to chase him, and Zeno was compelled to shut himself up in a fortress, where Illus besieged him, capturing also Zeno's brother, Longinus and keeping him as an hostage.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: However, the conspirators quickly fell in conflict with each other. Basiliscus took the throne for himself, putting to death Verina's lover and candidate, Patricius. He also allowed the mob to kill all of the Isaurians left in Constantinople, an episode that damaged relations with the Isaurian generals Illus and Trocundes. Basiliscus appointed his nephew Armatus "magister militum", thus alienating Theodoric Strabo. Since Zeno had left no money, Basiliscus was forced to levy heavy taxes. Finally, he alienated the Church by supporting the Monophysites. The people of Constantinople also put the blame on him for a great fire that burned several parts of the city. With the secret support of the Senate, and bribes paid by Zeno, Illus agreed to switch sides and united his army with Zeno's, marching on Constantinople. Basiliscus tried to recover popular support and sent another army against Zeno, under his nephew Armatus' command. Zeno succeeded in bribing Armatus too, promising to confirm his rank of "magister militum praesentalis" for life and promoting his son (also called Basiliscus) to the rank of "Caesar"; Armatus' army failed to intercept Zeno's troops during their march on Constantinople.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In August 476, Zeno besieged Constantinople. The Senate opened the gates of the city to the Isaurian, allowing the deposed emperor to resume the throne. Basiliscus fled with his family to the baptistery of Hagia Sophia. Betrayed by the Patriarch Acacius, he surrendered himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood. Basiliscus and his family were sent to a fortress in Cappadocia, where Zeno had them enclosed in a dry cistern, to die from exposure.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: After his restoration, Zeno fulfilled his promises, letting Armatus keep his title of "magister militum praesentalis" (possibly even raising him to the rank of "patricius") and appointing his son Basiliscus "Caesar" in Nicaea.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 477, however, Zeno changed his mind, probably at Illus' instigation, as the latter stood to gain from the fall of Armatus, and ordered Armatus' death. Zeno confiscated all of Armatus' properties, deposed his son Basiliscus, and had him ordained as a priest.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The western emperor Olybrius died in the autumn of 472. Gundobad, the western "magister militum", then proclaimed Glycerius, the "comes domesticorum" (commander of the Imperial guard) as western emperor in Ravenna. Leo I refused to endorse Glycerius and elevated his nephew Julius Nepos to co-emperor for the west in 473. Expecting resistance, Nepos was forced by bad winter weather to delay his voyage until the next year; it was therefore left to Zeno, as Leo's successor, to support Julius Nepos' installation in Ravenna. Nepos arrived in Italy, quickly deposed Glycerius who offered no resistance, and was proclaimed emperor by the Roman Senate in June 474. Julius was on good terms with Zeno, and he even minted coins in the names of Zeno, Leo II and himself.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In August 475, during Basiliscus' reign, while Zeno was in Isauria blocked by Illus' army, Orestes, the western "magister militum", revolted, forcing Nepos to flee Italy for Dalmatia; Orestes proclaimed his own son Romulus Augustus emperor, but was unable to gain the allegiance of the remnants of the Western Empire outside of Italy. One year later, while Zeno was entering Constantinople to end Basiliscus' brief usurpation, Romulus and Orestes were overthrown by the Chieftain Odoacer. With the support of Odoacer, the Roman Senate sent an envoy to present the imperial insignia to the restored Zeno. They asked Zeno to dissolve the separation of the empire and rule as sole Emperor; also, to appoint Odoacer both "patricius" and official imperial governor of Italy. At the same time, Zeno received another embassy, sent by Julius Nepos, who asked Zeno to give him the money and the army he needed to resume his control of Italy. Zeno answered that the Roman Senate should welcome back Julius Nepos, their rightful emperor, and that Odoacer should properly receive the patriciate from Nepos, although he allowed that he would also grant it. Odoacer was officially recognised and left in possession of Italy, while Nepos kept his title and the other fragments of the empire's western holdings, but no army.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Perhaps in deference to Zeno, Odoacer recognised Nepos' "de jure" reign in Italy until his death, ruling and even minting coins in his name, but he never allowed his return. After Nepos' assassination in 480, Odoacer invaded Dalmatia to pursue and punish the assassins (and also to take Dalmatia for himself). Zeno legitimised Odoacer's authority in Dalmatia; Odoacer recognised Zeno as sole emperor of the again unitary Empire, but increasingly started using the title of king for himself.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Marcian was son of the Western Roman emperor Anthemius (467–472) and maternal grandson of Emperor Marcian (450–457). He had married Ariadne's sister Leontia, and was therefore Zeno's brother-in-law; he was twice consul, in 467 and 472.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 479 Marcian tried to overthrow Zeno and claim the throne for himself. With the help of his brothers Procopius Anthemius and Romulus, he gathered in Constantinople troops composed of both citizens and foreigners in the house of a Caesarius, south of the Forum of Theodosius, and from there they marched at the same time on the imperial palace and on the house of Illus, who was a supporter of Zeno. The emperor almost fell into the hands of the rebels, who, during the day, overwhelmed the imperial troops, who were also attacked by citizens from the roofs of their houses. During the night, however, Illus moved an Isaurian unit, quartered in nearby Chalcedonia, into Constantinople and also corrupted Marcian's soldiers, who allowed Zeno to flee. The following morning, Marcian, understanding that his situation was desperate and that reinforcements from Theodoric Strabo would not arrive in time, took refuge in the church of the Holy Apostles, but was arrested with his brothers.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno sent Marcian and his brothers to Caesarea in Cappadocia. They tried to flee, but Marcian was captured and obliged to become a monk in Tarsus (Cilicia), or imprisoned in Isauria, in the fortress of Papurius. He tried to escape a second time, and this time he succeeded, but, after gathering new troops and attacking Ancyra, he was defeated and captured by Trocundes, Illus' brother.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The commanding position and popular favour of Illus rendered him an object of suspicion, and Zeno in various ways sought to rid himself of him. Also Verina, the dowager Empress, plotted against his life. Verina's attempt was unsuccessful, and Zeno, equally jealous of her and of Illus, banished her at the suggestion of the latter, confining her in the fort of Papurius. There is some doubt as to the timing of these events. Candidus of Isauria places the banishment of Verina before the revolt of Marcian, and Theodore Lector assigns as the cause of it her share in the revolt of Basiliscus. It is not unlikely, indeed, that this turbulent woman was twice banished, once before Marcian's revolt, for her connection with Basiliscus, and again after Marcian's revolt, for her plot against Illus.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: From her prison she managed to persuade her daughter Ariadne, the wife of Zeno, to attempt to obtain her release, first from Zeno, and then from Illus, to whom the Emperor referred her. Illus refused her request. Ariadne, like her mother, attempted to assassinate Illus. Jordanes ascribes her hatred to another cause: he says that Illus had infused jealous suspicions into Zeno's mind which had led Zeno to attempt to end her life, and that her knowledge of these things stimulated her to revenge. The assassin whom she employed only wounded Illus; the assassin was taken prisoner and Zeno, who appears to have been privy to the affair, was unable to prevent his execution.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Illus—with his friend Pamprepius, Leontius and his brother Trocundes—now retired from court. They first went to Nicaea and then, on pretence of change of air and of procuring a cure for his wound, into the East where he was made "magister militum". Having traversed Asia Minor, they raised the standard of revolt in 484, when Illus declared Leontius Emperor. Zeno sent an army to fight them, but Illus won, obtained possession of Papurius, released Verina, and induced her to crown Leontius at Tarsus.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 485 Zeno sent against the rebels a fresh army, said to consist of Macedonians and Scythians (Tillemont conjectures, not unreasonably, that these were Ostrogoths) under John the Hunchback, or, more probably, John the Scythian, and Theoderic the Amal, who was at this time consul. John defeated the rebels near Seleucia and drove them into the fort of Papurius where he blockaded them. After a few months Trocundes died; the fort was taken only after four years of siege, by the treachery of Trocundes's brother-in-law, who had been sent for the purpose from Constantinople by Zeno. Illus and Leontius were beheaded (488) and their heads sent to the Emperor.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The aggressions of the two Ostrogothic leaders, Theoderic the Amal (Theoderic the Great), the son of Theodemir and leader of the Moesian Ostrogoths, and Theodoric Strabo, the leader of the Thracian Ostrogoths, had been a constant source of danger since 472. Although Zeno at times contrived to play them off against each other, they in turn were able to profit by his dynastic rivalries. It was only by offering them pay and high command that he kept them from attacking Constantinople itself.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: At the death of Leo II, Theodoric Strabo rebelled against Zeno. His support was instrumental in overthrowing Zeno and raising Basiliscus to the Byzantine throne (475), but Theodoric and Basiliscus had a falling-out, so when Zeno returned to Constantinople in 476 and defeated Basiliscus, Strabo was reported to have not defended the city.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 476/477, Zeno allied himself with Strabo's rival, Theoderic the Amal, and ordered him to attack Strabo. The leader of the Thracian Goths sent an embassy to the Emperor, offering peace and blaming the Moesian Theodoric. Zeno understood that this offering was hiding further conspiracies, and convinced the Senate and army to declare Strabo a public enemy.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno's plan was to have the two Theoderics attack each other. He sent the Amal against Strabo, who supported the revolt of Marcianus, with the promise of a huge Roman force as reinforcement (478). When Theoderic the Amal arrived through the mountains at Mount Soundis, he did not find the Roman reinforcement army he expected, but instead Theodoric Strabo's army, in a strongly fortified camp. The two Theoderics agreed to put forward a joint request to the Emperor, in order to extend to the south the settlement territory of the Ostrogoths in Moesia.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno tried to divide the two Theoderics by bribing the Amal, but he refused the bribe. The Imperial army obtained some initial successes, but Zeno did not press his advantage, and allowed the Amal to move westward in Thrace, plundering territories as he went. With the Amal far away, Strabo accepted an agreement with Zeno: Strabo was to be given back his wealth, money to pay 13,000 soldiers, the command of two "palatinae" units, and the title once more of "magister militum". However, the army of Theodoric Strabo, 30,000-men strong was still a menace for Zeno, who convinced the Bulgars to attack the Thracian Goths in their own base. Strabo defeated the Bulgars in 480/481, and moved towards Constantinople, but he had to deal with problems with his own men, so he could not capitalise upon his victory and was forced to return to Greece. On his way back, he died in an accident.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: After Theodoric Strabo died in 481, the future Theoderic the Great became king of the entire Ostrogoth nation and continued to be a source of trouble in the Balkan peninsula. Zeno allied to Theoderic, whom he appointed "magister militum praesentalis" and even consul for the year 484, the first time a barbarian who was not a citizen of the Empire reached such a high distinction. Zeno had Theoderic fight against Illus and the usurper Leontius, besieging them at Papurius in 484–488. However, in 486 Theoderic revolted again and attacked Constantinople, severing the city's water supply. Zeno bought a peace and agreed with Theoderic that the Ostrogoths should have gone to invade Italy to fight Odoacer, who had allegedly supported Leontius, and to establish his new kingdom there (487). This all but eliminated the Germanic presence in the east.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In religious matters, Zeno is famous for his "Henotikon", or "Act of Union", issued in 482 to mediate between Chalcedonian and Miaphysite views about the nature of Christ. The Chalcedonians recognised two natures ("physis") in Christ, the Miaphysites only one; the Council of Chalcedon (451) had issued the Chalcedonian Creed and condemned the Miaphysite position, but the Miaphysites were still strong, especially in the Eastern provinces of the Empire, and the Patriarch of Alexandria, Peter Mongus, was a Miaphysite. Supporting the Miaphysites was one of the mistakes made by Basiliscus, as the people of Constantinople were Chalcedonian, but Zeno needed the support of the Miaphysite provinces—Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Asia Minor; also, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Acacius, was interested in reducing the distance between the two positions.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Therefore, in 482 Zeno issued the "Henotikon", a document he had developed with the support of Acacius and addressed to the factions in Egypt. The edict affirmed the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (i.e., the Creed of Nicaea completed at Constantinople) as affording a common, final and united symbol or expression of faith. All other symbola or mathemata were excluded; Eutyches and Nestorius were unmistakably condemned in an anathema, while the twelve chapters of Cyril of Alexandria were accepted. The teaching of Chalcedon was not so much repudiated as passed over in silence; Jesus Christ was described as the "only-begotten Son of God [...] one and not two" and there was no explicit reference to the two natures.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The bishop of Rome, Pope Felix III, refused to accept the document and excommunicated Acacius (484), thus beginning the Acacian schism, which lasted until 519.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 488 the patriarch of Antioch, Peter the Fuller, came to Constantinople to have his right to the Church of Cyprus confirmed. Zeno called the bishop of Cyprus, Anthemius, to answer the accusations. The bishop claimed that before his departure, he had had a vision of St. Barnabas, in which the position of the tomb of the apostle had been revealed to him. In the tomb, Anthemius had found the relics of the apostle and a copy of the "Gospel of Matthew" written in Hebrew by Barnabas himself. Zeno received the relics and the manuscript, and in exchange he proclaimed the autonomy of the Church of Cyprus.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: In 489 Zeno closed the Persian school of Edessa in Mesopotamia, by request of bishop Cyrus II of Edessa, because it promoted Nestorian teachings, and built a church in its place. The school relocated to its original home of Nisibis, becoming again the School of Nisibis, and leading to a wave of Nestorian immigration into Persia.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: According to Samaritan sources, Zeno (whom the sources call "Zait the King of Edom") persecuted the Samaritans. The Emperor went to Sichem ("Neapolis"), gathered the elders and asked them to convert; when they refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed, and converted the synagogue to a church. Zeno then took for himself Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshipped God, and built several edifices, among which a tomb for his recently deceased son, on which he put a cross, so that the Samaritans, worshipping God, would prostrate in front of the tomb. According to these same sources, Zeno was buried on Mount Gerizim.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted. The rebels attacked Sichem, burnt five churches built on Samaritan holy places and cut off the fingers of bishop Terebinthus, who was officiating the ceremony of Whitsun. They elected Justa (or Justasa/Justasus) as their king and moved to Caesarea, where a significant Samaritan community lived. Here several Christians were killed and the church of St. Sebastian was destroyed. Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus. According to John Malalas, the "dux Palestinae" Asclepiades, whose troops were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno. According to Procopius of Caesarea, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge; the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Modern historians believe that the order of the facts preserved by Samaritan sources should be inverted, as the persecution of Zeno was a consequence of the rebellion rather than its cause, and should have happened after 484, around 489. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis (Sichem) and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signalling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno died on 9 April 491, of dysentery or of epilepsy, after ruling for 17 years and 2 months. No sons were to succeed him: Leo had died in 474, Zenon, the first son, in his youth, while living at court. Ariadne then chose a favoured member of the Imperial court, Anastasius, to succeed Zeno. Zeno's brother Longinus then revolted, starting the Isaurian War.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: According to the chroniclers George Kedrenos (twelfth century) and Joannes Zonaras (thirteenth century), Ariadne would have had Zeno locked up in a tomb, unconscious after an excess of drink, or the victim of an acute illness. Coming back to his senses, Zeno would have devoured his arms and would have launched from his tomb cries so loud that the people present would have heard them, but would have been forbidden to intervene by order of Ariadne. This is one of the first historical mentions of the theme of the buried alive devouring their arms or hands. This tale is not likely, as earlier and contemporary sources do not mention it, even though they too were hostile to his memory.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno was a player of τάβλη (tabula), a game nearly identical to modern backgammon. (Τάβλη is still used to refer to backgammon in Greece.) In 480 he had a hand that was so unlucky that he wrote an epigram to record it; Agathias reproduced it half a century later and this allowed the game to be reconstructed in the 19th century. Zeno, who was white, had a stack of seven checkers, three stacks of two checkers and two "blots", checkers that stand alone on a point and are therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opponent checker. Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5 and 6. As in backgammon, Zeno could not move to a space occupied by two opponent (black) pieces. The white and black checkers were so distributed on the points that the only way to use all of the three results, as required by the game rules, was to break the three stacks of two checkers into blots, thus exposing them to capture and ruining the game for Zeno.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: Zeno is the protagonist of a theatrical drama in Latin, called "Zeno", composed c. 1641 by the Jesuit playwright Joseph Simons and performed in 1643 in Rome at the Jesuit English College. An anonymous Greek drama is modelled on this Latin "Zeno", belonging to the so-called Cretan Theatre. This version was written and performed at Zakynthos in 1682–83 and has Zeno buried alive and his brother Longinus executed.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The play "Romulus the Great" (1950), by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, has Zeno as one of its characters. The plot is loosely based on history; here Zeno flees to Italy and tries to convince Romulus Augustulus to unite their forces and fight together, but his plan fails. Dürrenmatt's Zeno is an Emperor oppressed by the Byzantine ceremonial.


title: Zeno (emperor)

text: The events of Zeno's reign are quite obscure; only one continuous account of his reign has been preserved, by Evagrius Scholasticus, in his "Historia Ecclesiastica" (Chapter 3).


title: Hell's Kitchen (American season 10)

text: Season 10 of the American competitive reality television series "Hell's Kitchen" premiered on June 4, 2012 on Fox and concluded on September 10, 2012. Chef de Cuisine Christina Wilson won the season and received a head chef position at Gordon Ramsay Steak at the Paris Las Vegas in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.


title: Hell's Kitchen (American season 10)

text: Gordon Ramsay returned as head chef, Scott Leibfried and Andi van Willigan returned as sous chefs and James Lukanik returned as the maître d'.


title: Hell's Kitchen (American season 10)

text: This season saw an alteration to the show's format, with many episodes now being two-parters, depicting the team challenge and reward/punishment one night, followed by service and elimination the following night. This is the first and only season to date where one challenge produced no winner and both teams faced punishment.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (U with 99.2739–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (U, 0.7198–0.7202%), and uranium-234 (U, 0.0050–0.0059%). U is the only nuclide existing in nature (in any appreciable amount) that is fissile with thermal neutrons.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency attempts to monitor and control enriched uranium supplies and processes in its efforts to ensure nuclear power generation safety and curb nuclear weapons proliferation.


title: Enriched uranium

text: There are about 2,000 tonnes of highly enriched uranium in the world, produced mostly for nuclear power, nuclear weapons, naval propulsion, and smaller quantities for research reactors.


title: Enriched uranium

text: The U remaining after enrichment is known as depleted uranium (DU), and is considerably less radioactive than even natural uranium, though still very dense. Depleted uranium is used as a radiation shielding material and for armor-penetrating weapons.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Uranium as it is taken directly from the Earth is not suitable as fuel for most nuclear reactors and requires additional processes to make it usable (CANDU design is a notable exception). Uranium is mined either underground or in an open pit depending on the depth at which it is found. After the uranium ore is mined, it must go through a milling process to extract the uranium from the ore.


title: Enriched uranium

text: This is accomplished by a combination of chemical processes with the end product being concentrated uranium oxide, which is known as "yellowcake", contains roughly 80% uranium whereas the original ore typically contains as little as 0.1% uranium.


title: Enriched uranium

text: After the milling process is complete, the uranium must next undergo a process of conversion, "to either uranium dioxide, which can be used as the fuel for those types of reactors that do not require enriched uranium, or into uranium hexafluoride, which can be enriched to produce fuel for the majority of types of reactors". Naturally-occurring uranium is made of a mixture of U and U. The U is fissile, meaning it is easily split with neutrons while the remainder is U, but in nature, more than 99% of the extracted ore is U. Most nuclear reactors require enriched uranium, which is uranium with higher concentrations of U ranging between 3.5% and 4.5% (although a few reactor designs using a graphite or heavy water moderator, such as the RBMK and CANDU, are capable of operating with natural uranium as fuel). There are two commercial enrichment processes: gaseous diffusion and gas centrifugation. Both enrichment processes involve the use of uranium hexafluoride and produce enriched uranium oxide.


title: Enriched uranium

text: "Reprocessed uranium" (RepU) is a product of nuclear fuel cycles involving nuclear reprocessing of spent fuel. RepU recovered from light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel typically contains slightly more U than natural uranium, and therefore could be used to fuel reactors that customarily use natural uranium as fuel, such as CANDU reactors. It also contains the undesirable isotope uranium-236, which undergoes neutron capture, wasting neutrons (and requiring higher U enrichment) and creating neptunium-237, which would be one of the more mobile and troublesome radionuclides in deep geological repository disposal of nuclear waste.


title: Enriched uranium

text: "Low-enriched uranium" (LEU) has a lower than 20% concentration of U; for instance, in commercial LWR, the most prevalent power reactors in the world, uranium is enriched to 3 to 5% U.


title: Enriched uranium

text: High-assay LEU (HALEU) is enriched from 5–20%. Fresh LEU used in research reactors is usually enriched 12 to 19.75% U, the latter concentration is used to replace HEU fuels when converting to LEU.


title: Enriched uranium

text: "Highly enriched uranium" (HEU) has a 20% or higher concentration of U. The fissile uranium in nuclear weapon primaries usually contains 85% or more of U known as weapons-grade, though theoretically for an implosion design, a minimum of 20% could be sufficient (called weapon-usable) although it would require hundreds of kilograms of material and "would not be practical to design"; even lower enrichment is hypothetically possible, but as the enrichment percentage decreases the critical mass for unmoderated fast neutrons rapidly increases, with for example, an infinite mass of 5.4% U being required. For criticality experiments, enrichment of uranium to over 97% has been accomplished.


title: Enriched uranium

text: The very first uranium bomb, Little Boy, dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945, used 64 kilograms of 80% enriched uranium. Wrapping the weapon's fissile core in a neutron reflector (which is standard on all nuclear explosives) can dramatically reduce the critical mass. Because the core was surrounded by a good neutron reflector, at explosion it comprised almost 2.5 critical masses. Neutron reflectors, compressing the fissile core via implosion, fusion boosting, and "tamping", which slows the expansion of the fissioning core with inertia, allow nuclear weapon designs that use less than what would be one bare-sphere critical mass at normal density. The presence of too much of the U isotope inhibits the runaway nuclear chain reaction that is responsible for the weapon's power. The critical mass for 85% highly enriched uranium is about , which at normal density would be a sphere about in diameter.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Later US nuclear weapons usually use plutonium-239 in the primary stage, but the jacket or tamper secondary stage, which is compressed by the primary nuclear explosion often uses HEU with enrichment between 40% and 80%


title: Enriched uranium

text: along with the fusion fuel lithium deuteride. For the secondary of a large nuclear weapon, the higher critical mass of less-enriched uranium can be an advantage as it allows the core at explosion time to contain a larger amount of fuel. The U is not said to be fissile but still is fissionable by fast neutrons (>2 MeV) such as the ones produced during D-T fusion.


title: Enriched uranium

text: HEU is also used in fast neutron reactors, whose cores require about 20% or more of fissile material, as well as in naval reactors, where it often contains at least 50% U, but typically does not exceed 90%. The Fermi-1 commercial fast reactor prototype used HEU with 26.5% U. Significant quantities of HEU are used in the production of medical isotopes, for example molybdenum-99 for technetium-99m generators.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Isotope separation is difficult because two isotopes of the same element have nearly identical chemical properties, and can only be separated gradually using small mass differences. (U is only 1.26% lighter than U). This problem is compounded because uranium is rarely separated in its atomic form, but instead as a compound (UF is only 0.852% lighter than UF).


title: Enriched uranium

text: A cascade of identical stages produces successively higher concentrations of U. Each stage passes a slightly more concentrated product to the next stage and returns a slightly less concentrated residue to the previous stage.


title: Enriched uranium

text: There are currently two generic commercial methods employed internationally for enrichment: gaseous diffusion (referred to as "first" generation) and gas centrifuge ("second" generation), which consumes only 2% to 2.5% as much energy as gaseous diffusion (at least a "factor of 20" more efficient). Some work is being done that would use nuclear resonance; however there is no reliable evidence that any nuclear resonance processes have been scaled up to production.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride ("hex") through semi-permeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing U and U. Throughout the Cold War, gaseous diffusion played a major role as a uranium enrichment technique, and as of 2008 accounted for about 33% of enriched uranium production, but in 2011 was deemed an obsolete technology that is steadily being replaced by the later generations of technology as the diffusion plants reach their ends-of-life. In 2013, the Paducah facility in the US ceased operating, it was the last commercial U gaseous diffusion plant in the world.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Thermal diffusion uses the transfer of heat across a thin liquid or gas to accomplish isotope separation. The process exploits the fact that the lighter U gas molecules will diffuse toward a hot surface, and the heavier U gas molecules will diffuse toward a cold surface. The S-50 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee was used during World War II to prepare feed material for the EMIS process. It was abandoned in favor of gaseous diffusion.


title: Enriched uranium

text: The gas centrifuge process uses a large number of rotating cylinders in series and parallel formations. Each cylinder's rotation creates a strong centripetal force so that the heavier gas molecules containing U move tangentially toward the outside of the cylinder and the lighter gas molecules rich in U collect closer to the center. It requires much less energy to achieve the same separation than the older gaseous diffusion process, which it has largely replaced and so is the current method of choice and is termed "second generation". It has a separation factor per stage of 1.3 relative to gaseous diffusion of 1.005, which translates to about one-fiftieth of the energy requirements. Gas centrifuge techniques produce close to 100% of the world's enriched uranium. The cost per separative work unit is approximately 100 dollars per SWU, making it about 40% cheaper than standard gaseous diffusion techniques.


title: Enriched uranium

text: The Zippe-type centrifuge is an improvement on the standard gas centrifuge, the primary difference being the use of heat. The bottom of the rotating cylinder is heated, producing convection currents that move the U up the cylinder, where it can be collected by scoops. This improved centrifuge design is used commercially by Urenco to produce nuclear fuel and was used by Pakistan in their nuclear weapons program.


title: Enriched uranium

text: Laser processes promise lower energy inputs, lower capital costs and lower tails assays, hence significant economic advantages. Several laser processes have been investigated or are under development. "Separation of isotopes by laser excitation" (SILEX) is well developed and is licensed for commercial operation as of 2012. Separation of isotopes by laser excitation is a very effective and cheap method of uranium separation, able to be done in small facilities requiring much less energy and space than previous separation techniques. The cost of uranium enrichment using laser enrichment technologies is approximately $30 per SWU which is less than a third of the price of gas centrifuges, the current standard of enrichment. Separation of isotopes by laser excitation could be done in facilities virtually undetectable by satellites. More than 20 countries have worked with laser separation over the past two decades, the most notable of these countries being Iran and North Korea, though all countries have had very limited success up to this point.


title: Enriched uranium

text: "Atomic vapor laser isotope separation" employs specially tuned lasers to separate isotopes of uranium using selective ionization of hyperfine transitions. The technique uses lasers tuned to frequencies that ionize U atoms and no others. The positively charged U ions are then attracted to a negatively charged plate and collected.


title: Enriched uranium

text: "Molecular laser isotope separation" uses an infrared laser directed at UF, exciting molecules that contain a U atom. A second laser frees a fluorine atom, leaving uranium pentafluoride, which then precipitates out of the gas.