American physicists at U.C. Berkeley were soon to discover they could force uranium-238 to decay into plutonium-239 ... so they can’t sustain a nuclear chain reaction. That’s what makes ...

scientists believe that about 20 TW is generated by radioactive decay – 8 TW from the uranium-238 decay chain; 8 TW from the thorium-232 decay chain and the final 4 TW from potassium-40. Fortunately, ...

The exposure of fissile isotopes to neutrons results in rapid nuclear decay, along well-known decay chains into a range of different isotopes. Some of these are helpful – like fissile Pu-239 ...

The isotope they sought would decay to actinium, which was always found with uranium but was known to be the parent of an unknown natural radioactive decay chain distinct from that of uranium 238, the ...

Though uranium is highly associated with radioactivity, its rate of decay is so low that this element ... thanks to its ability to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. U-235 is "fissile," meaning ...

Decay products of U-238 include thorium-234 (Th-234), protactinium ... uranium is not effectively transported in the food chain. Depleted uranium in the soil will be in an oxidized, soluble chemical ...

Fission can occur spontaneously, via natural decay, or through controlled chain reactions initiated by people. Either way, the process releases a tremendous amount of energy. Nuclear power plants ...

DU is less radioactive than natural uranium because it has less U-235 per unit of mass. All traces of decay products have been removed during the chemical purification of uranium prior to enrichment.

Nuclear reactors could be burning deep beneath the ground, two scientists have claimed. They say that uranium could become sufficiently concentrated at the base of Earth’s mantle to ignite self ...

“Levels of (lead-210) in key samples were well above background activities, and were significantly out of secular equilibrium with other members of the uranium decay chain,” the authors wrote.