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Uranium (92 U) is a naturally occurring radioactive element (radioelement) with no stable isotopes. It has two primordial isotopes, uranium-238 and uranium-235, that have long half-lives and are found in appreciable quantity in Earth's crust. The decay product uranium-234 is also found.
Uranium-234 (234 U or U-234) is an isotope of uranium. In natural uranium and in uranium ore, 234 U occurs as an indirect decay product of uranium-238, but it makes up only 0.0055% (55 parts per million, or 1/18,000) of the raw uranium because its half-life of just 245,500 years is only about 1/18,000 as long as that of 238 U. Thus the ratio of ...
This page lists radioactive nuclides by their half-life.
Of the 26 "monoisotopic" elements that have only a single stable isotope, all but one have an odd atomic number—the single exception being beryllium. In addition, no odd-numbered element has more than two stable isotopes, while every even-numbered element with stable isotopes, except for helium, beryllium, and carbon, has at least three.
Triuranium octoxide is (depending on conditions) the most stable compound of uranium and is the form most commonly found in nature. Uranium dioxide is the form in which uranium is most commonly used as a nuclear reactor fuel. [104] At ambient temperatures, UO 2 will gradually convert to U 3 O 8. Because of their stability, uranium oxides are ...
Much smaller trace amounts of the short-lived protactinium-234 and its nuclear isomer protactinium-234m occur in the decay chain of uranium-238. Protactinium-233 occurs as a result of the decay of thorium-233 as part of the chain of events necessary to produce uranium-233 by neutron irradiation of thorium-232.
234m Pa (234 metastable) is the granddaughter of 238 U. These might also be referred to as the daughter products of 238 U. [1] Decay products are important in understanding radioactive decay and the management of radioactive waste. For elements above lead in atomic number, the decay chain typically ends with an isotope of lead or bismuth.
The decay-chain of uranium-238, which contains radium-226 as an intermediate decay product. 226 Ra occurs in the decay chain of uranium-238 (238 U), which is the most common naturally occurring isotope of uranium. It undergoes alpha decay to radon-222, which is also radioactive; the decay chain ultimately terminates at lead-206.