General | |
---|---|
Symbol | 236U |
Names | uranium-236, 236U, U-236 |
Protons (Z) | 92 |
Neutrons (N) | 144 |
Nuclide data | |
Natural abundance | 10−10 |
Half-life (t1/2) | 2.348×107 years |
Isotope mass | 236.045568(2) Da |
Spin | 0+ |
Binding energy | 1790415.042±1.974 keV |
Parent isotopes | 236Pa 236Np 240Pu |
Decay products | 232Th |
Decay modes | |
Decay mode | Decay energy (MeV) |
Alpha | 4.572 |
Isotopes of uranium Complete table of nuclides |
Uranium-236 (236U) is an isotope of uranium that is neither fissile with thermal neutrons, nor very good fertile material, but is generally considered a nuisance and long-lived radioactive waste. It is found in spent nuclear fuel and in the reprocessed uranium made from spent nuclear fuel.
The fissile isotope uranium-235 fuels most nuclear reactors. When 235U absorbs a thermal neutron, one of two processes can occur. About 85.5% of the time, it will fission; about 15.5% of the time, it will not fission, instead emitting gamma radiation and yielding 236U. [1] [2] Thus, the yield of 236U per 235U+n reaction is about 15.5%, and the yield of fission products is about 85.5%. In comparison, the yields of the most abundant individual fission products like caesium-137, strontium-90, and technetium-99 are between 6% and 7%, and the combined yield of medium-lived (10 years and up) and long-lived fission products is about 32%, or a few percent less as some are transmutated by neutron capture. Caesium-135 is the most notable "absent fission product", as it is found far more in nuclear fallout than in spent nuclear fuel since its parent nuclide xenon-135 is the strongest known neutron poison.
The second-most used fissile isotope plutonium-239 can also fission or not fission on absorbing a thermal neutron. The product plutonium-240 makes up a large proportion of reactor-grade plutonium (plutonium recycled from spent fuel that was originally made with enriched natural uranium and then used once in an LWR). 240Pu decays with a half-life of 6561 years into 236U. In a closed nuclear fuel cycle, most 240Pu will be fissioned (possibly after more than one neutron capture) before it decays, but 240Pu discarded as nuclear waste will decay over thousands of years. As 240
Pu has a shorter half life than 239
Pu, the grade of any sample of plutonium mostly composed of those two isotopes will slowly increase, while the total amount of plutonium in the sample will slowly decrease over centuries and millennia. Alpha decay of 240
Pu produces uranium-236, while 239
Pu decays to uranium-235.
Actinides [3] by decay chain | Half-life range (a) | Fission products of 235U by yield [4] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4n | 4n + 1 | 4n + 2 | 4n + 3 | 4.5–7% | 0.04–1.25% | <0.001% | ||
228 Ra№ | 4–6 a | 155 Euþ | ||||||
244 Cmƒ | 241 Puƒ | 250 Cf | 227 Ac№ | 10–29 a | 90 Sr | 85 Kr | 113m Cdþ | |
232 Uƒ | 238 Puƒ | 243 Cmƒ | 29–97 a | 137 Cs | 151 Smþ | 121m Sn | ||
248 Bk [5] | 249 Cfƒ | 242m Amƒ | 141–351 a | No fission products have a half-life | ||||
241 Amƒ | 251 Cfƒ [6] | 430–900 a | ||||||
226 Ra№ | 247 Bk | 1.3–1.6 ka | ||||||
240 Pu | 229 Th | 246 Cmƒ | 243 Amƒ | 4.7–7.4 ka | ||||
245 Cmƒ | 250 Cm | 8.3–8.5 ka | ||||||
239 Puƒ | 24.1 ka | |||||||
230 Th№ | 231 Pa№ | 32–76 ka | ||||||
236 Npƒ | 233 Uƒ | 234 U№ | 150–250 ka | 99 Tc₡ | 126 Sn | |||
248 Cm | 242 Pu | 327–375 ka | 79 Se₡ | |||||
1.53 Ma | 93 Zr | |||||||
237 Npƒ | 2.1–6.5 Ma | 135 Cs₡ | 107 Pd | |||||
236 U | 247 Cmƒ | 15–24 Ma | 129 I₡ | |||||
244 Pu | 80 Ma | ... nor beyond 15.7 Ma [7] | ||||||
232 Th№ | 238 U№ | 235 Uƒ№ | 0.7–14.1 Ga | |||||
|
While the largest part of uranium-236 has been produced by neutron capture in nuclear power reactors, it is for the most part stored in nuclear reactors and waste repositories. The most significant contribution to uranium-236 abundance in the environment is the 238U(n,3n)236U reaction by fast neutrons in thermonuclear weapons. The A-bomb testing of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s has raised the environmental abundance levels significantly above the expected natural levels. [8]
236U, on absorption of a thermal neutron, does not undergo fission, but becomes 237U, which quickly undergoes beta decay to 237Np. However, the neutron capture cross section of 236U is low, and this process does not happen quickly in a thermal reactor. Spent nuclear fuel typically contains about 0.4% 236U. With a much greater cross-section, 237Np may eventually absorb another neutron and become 238Np, which quickly beta decays to plutonium-238 (another non-fissile isotope).
236U and most other actinide isotopes are fissionable by fast neutrons in a nuclear bomb or a fast neutron reactor. A small number of fast reactors have been in research use for decades, but widespread use for power production is still in the future.
Uranium-236 alpha decays with a half-life of 23.420 million years to thorium-232. It is longer-lived than any other artificial actinides or fission products produced in the nuclear fuel cycle. (Plutonium-244, which has a half-life of 80 million years, is not produced in significant quantity by the nuclear fuel cycle, and the longer-lived uranium-235, uranium-238, and thorium-232 occur in nature.)
Unlike plutonium, minor actinides, fission products, or activation products, chemical processes cannot separate 236U from 238U, 235U, 232U or other uranium isotopes. It is even difficult to remove with isotopic separation, as low enrichment will concentrate not only the desirable 235U and 233U but the undesirable 236U, 234U and 232U. On the other hand, 236U in the environment cannot separate from 238U and concentrate separately, which limits its radiation hazard in any one place.
The half-life of 238U is about 190 times as long as that of 236U; therefore, 236U should have about 190 times as much specific activity. That is, in reprocessed uranium with 0.5% 236U, the 236U and 238U will produce about the same level of radioactivity. (235U contributes only a few percent.)
The ratio is less than 190 when the decay products of each are included. The decay chain of uranium-238 to uranium-234 and eventually lead-206 involves emission of eight alpha particles in a time (hundreds of thousands of years) short compared to the half-life of 238U, so that a sample of 238U in equilibrium with its decay products (as in natural uranium ore) will have eight times the alpha activity of 238U alone. Even purified natural uranium where the post-uranium decay products have been removed will contain an equilibrium quantity of 234U and therefore about twice the alpha activity of pure 238U. Enrichment to increase 235U content will increase 234U to an even greater degree, and roughly half of this 234U will survive in the spent fuel. On the other hand, 236U decays to thorium-232 which has a half-life of 14 billion years, equivalent to a decay rate only 31.4% as great as that of 238U.
Depleted uranium used in kinetic energy penetrators, etc. is supposed to be made from uranium enrichment tailings that have never been irradiated in a nuclear reactor, not reprocessed uranium. However, there have been claims that some depleted uranium has contained small amounts of 236U. [9]
In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material that can undergo nuclear fission when struck by a neutron of low energy. A self-sustaining thermal chain reaction can only be achieved with fissile material. The predominant neutron energy in a system may be typified by either slow neutrons or fast neutrons. Fissile material can be used to fuel thermal-neutron reactors, fast-neutron reactors and nuclear explosives.
The nuclear fuel cycle, also called nuclear fuel chain, is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the front end, which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the service period in which the fuel is used during reactor operation, and steps in the back end, which are necessary to safely manage, contain, and either reprocess or dispose of spent nuclear fuel. If spent fuel is not reprocessed, the fuel cycle is referred to as an open fuel cycle ; if the spent fuel is reprocessed, it is referred to as a closed fuel cycle.
Mixed oxide fuel, commonly referred to as MOX fuel, is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material, usually consisting of plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an alternative to the low-enriched uranium fuel used in the light-water reactors that predominate nuclear power generation.
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These reactors can be fueled with more-commonly available isotopes of uranium and thorium, such as uranium-238 and thorium-232, as opposed to the rare uranium-235 which is used in conventional reactors. These materials are called fertile materials since they can be bred into fuel by these breeder reactors.
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature, with a relative abundance of 99%. Unlike uranium-235, it is non-fissile, which means it cannot sustain a chain reaction in a thermal-neutron reactor. However, it is fissionable by fast neutrons, and is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium-239. 238U cannot support a chain reaction because inelastic scattering reduces neutron energy below the range where fast fission of one or more next-generation nuclei is probable. Doppler broadening of 238U's neutron absorption resonances, increasing absorption as fuel temperature increases, is also an essential negative feedback mechanism for reactor control.
The integral fast reactor (IFR), originally the advancedliquid-metal reactor (ALMR), is a design for a nuclear reactor using fast neutrons and no neutron moderator. IFRs can breed more fuel and are distinguished by a nuclear fuel cycle that uses reprocessing via electrorefining at the reactor site.
Uranium-234 is an isotope of uranium. In natural uranium and in uranium ore, 234U occurs as an indirect decay product of uranium-238, but it makes up only 0.0055% of the raw uranium because its half-life of just 245,500 years is only about 1/18,000 as long as that of 238U. Thus the ratio of 234
U to 238
U in a natural sample is equivalent to the ratio of their half-lives. The primary path of production of 234U via nuclear decay is as follows: uranium-238 nuclei emit an alpha particle to become thorium-234. Next, with a short half-life, 234Th nuclei emit a beta particle to become protactinium-234 (234Pa), or more likely a nuclear isomer denoted 234mPa. Finally, 234Pa or 234mPa nuclei emit another beta particle to become 234U nuclei.
Plutonium-239 is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years.
Uranium (92U) is a naturally occurring radioactive element that has no stable isotope. It has two primordial isotopes, uranium-238 and uranium-235, that have long half-lives and are found in appreciable quantity in the Earth's crust. The decay product uranium-234 is also found. Other isotopes such as uranium-233 have been produced in breeder reactors. In addition to isotopes found in nature or nuclear reactors, many isotopes with far shorter half-lives have been produced, ranging from 214U to 242U. The standard atomic weight of natural uranium is 238.02891(3).
Neptunium (93Np) is usually considered an artificial element, although trace quantities are found in nature, so a standard atomic weight cannot be given. Like all trace or artificial elements, it has no stable isotopes. The first isotope to be synthesized and identified was 239Np in 1940, produced by bombarding 238
U
with neutrons to produce 239
U
, which then underwent beta decay to 239
Np
.
Plutonium (94Pu) is an artificial element, except for trace quantities resulting from neutron capture by uranium, and thus a standard atomic weight cannot be given. Like all artificial elements, it has no stable isotopes. It was synthesized long before being found in nature, the first isotope synthesized being plutonium-238 in 1940. Twenty plutonium radioisotopes have been characterized. The most stable are plutonium-244 with a half-life of 80.8 million years; plutonium-242 with a half-life of 373,300 years; and plutonium-239 with a half-life of 24,110 years; and plutonium-240 with a half-life of 6,560 years. This element also has eight meta states; all have half-lives of less than one second.
The thorium fuel cycle is a nuclear fuel cycle that uses an isotope of thorium, 232
Th
, as the fertile material. In the reactor, 232
Th
is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 233
U
which is the nuclear fuel. Unlike natural uranium, natural thorium contains only trace amounts of fissile material, which are insufficient to initiate a nuclear chain reaction. Additional fissile material or another neutron source is necessary to initiate the fuel cycle. In a thorium-fuelled reactor, 232
Th
absorbs neutrons to produce 233
U
. This parallels the process in uranium breeder reactors whereby fertile 238
U
absorbs neutrons to form fissile 239
Pu
. Depending on the design of the reactor and fuel cycle, the generated 233
U
either fissions in situ or is chemically separated from the used nuclear fuel and formed into new nuclear fuel.
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor. It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and, depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it will have different isotopic constituents than when it started.
Weapons-grade nuclear material is any fissionable nuclear material that is pure enough to make a nuclear weapon and has properties that make it particularly suitable for nuclear weapons use. Plutonium and uranium in grades normally used in nuclear weapons are the most common examples.
Plutonium-241 is an isotope of plutonium formed when plutonium-240 captures a neutron. Like some other plutonium isotopes, 241Pu is fissile, with a neutron absorption cross section about one-third greater than that of 239Pu, and a similar probability of fissioning on neutron absorption, around 73%. In the non-fission case, neutron capture produces plutonium-242. In general, isotopes with an odd number of neutrons are both more likely to absorb a neutron and more likely to undergo fission on neutron absorption than isotopes with an even number of neutrons.
In nuclear power technology, burnup is a measure of how much energy is extracted from a primary nuclear fuel source. It is measured as the fraction of fuel atoms that underwent fission in %FIMA or %FIFA as well as, preferably, the actual energy released per mass of initial fuel in gigawatt-days/metric ton of heavy metal (GWd/tHM), or similar units.
Plutonium-242 is one of the isotopes of plutonium, the second longest-lived, with a half-life of 375,000 years. The half-life of 242Pu is about 15 times that of 239Pu; so it is one-fifteenth as radioactive, and not one of the larger contributors to nuclear waste radioactivity. 242Pu's gamma ray emissions are also weaker than those of the other isotopes.
Long-lived fission products (LLFPs) are radioactive materials with a long half-life produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium. Because of their persistent radiotoxicity, it is necessary to isolate them from humans and the biosphere and to confine them in nuclear waste repositories for geological periods of time. The focus of this article is radioisotopes (radionuclides) generated by fission reactors.
Reprocessed uranium (RepU) is the uranium recovered from nuclear reprocessing, as done commercially in France, the UK and Japan and by nuclear weapons states' military plutonium production programs. This uranium makes up the bulk of the material separated during reprocessing.
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or an isotope into another chemical element. Nuclear transmutation occurs in any process where the number of protons or neutrons in the nucleus of an atom is changed.