Uranyl sulfates are intermediates in some extraction methods used for uranium ores.

The trans-UO22+ centers are encased in a pentagonal bipyramidal coordination sphere.

[2] Aside from the large scale use in mining, uranyl sulfate finds some use as a negative stain in microscopy and tracer in biology.

The Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor experiment, constructed in 1951, circulated a fuel composed of 565 grams of U-235 enriched to 14.7% in the form of uranyl sulfate.

[citation needed] The acid process of milling uranium ores involves precipitating uranyl sulfate from the pregnant leaching solution to produce the semi-refined product referred to as yellowcake.