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Uranium-235 (235 U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exists in nature as a primordial nuclide. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years.
Uranium-235 makes up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a fission chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that is a primordial nuclide or found in significant quantity in nature. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years.
Fission product yields by mass for thermal neutron fission of U-235 and Pu-239 (the two typical of current nuclear power reactors) and U-233 (used in the thorium cycle). This page discusses each of the main elements in the mixture of fission products produced by nuclear fission of the common nuclear fuels uranium and plutonium.
Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium is used in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons because it is the only naturally occurring element with a fissile isotope – uranium-235 – present in non-trace amounts.
For such use, the concentration of fissile isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239 in the element used must be sufficiently high. Uranium from natural sources is enriched by isotope separation, and plutonium is produced in a suitable nuclear reactor. Experiments have been conducted with uranium-233 (the fissile material at the heart of the ...
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235 U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation.Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 U with 99.2732–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (235 U, 0.7198–0.7210%), and uranium-234 (234 U, 0.0049–0.0059%).
Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium is the only naturally occurring element in non-trace amounts of a fissile isotope, uranium-235, which makes it widely used in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. However, because of the low abundance of uranium-235 in natural uranium (which is, overwhelmingly ...
As a result, fissile materials (such as uranium-235) are a subset of fissionable materials. Uranium-235 fissions with low-energy thermal neutrons because the binding energy resulting from the absorption of a neutron is greater than the critical energy required for fission; therefore uranium-235 is fissile. By contrast, the binding energy ...