Uranium-236

Full table
General
Name, symbol
Uranium-236,
236
U
Neutrons 144
Protons 92
Nuclide data
Natural abundance
< 10
-11
Half-life
2.348 x10
7
years
Parent isotopes
236
Pa
236
Np
240
Pu
Decay products
232
Th
Isotope mass 236.045568(2) u
Spin 0+
Binding energy 1790415.042 1.974 keV
Decay mode Decay energy
Alpha 4.572 MeV
Actinides
[1]
by decay chain
Half-life
range (a)
Fission products by yield
[2]
4n 4n+1 4n+2 4n+3 4.57% 0.041.25% <0.001%
228
Ra

46

155
Eu

244
Cm
241
Pu
250
Cf
227
Ac

1029
90
Sr
85
Kr
113m
Cd

232
U
238
Pu
243
Cm

2997
137
Cs
151
Sm
121m
Sn
248
Bk
[3]
249
Cf

242m
Am

141351
No fission products
have a half-life
in the range of
100210k years
241
Am
251
Cf
[4]
430900
226
Ra
247
Bk 1.3k1.6k
240
Pu
229
Th
246
Cm
243
Am 4.7k7.4k
245
Cm
250
Cm 8.3k8.5k
239
Pu

24.1k
230
Th

231
Pa

32k76k
236
Np
233
U
234
U

150k250k

99
Tc
126
Sn
248
Cm
242
Pu 327k375k
79
Se

1.53M
93
Zr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uranium-236 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.
1 Creation and yield
2 Destruction and decay
3 Difficulty of separation
4 Contribution to radioactivity of reprocessed uranium
5 Depleted uranium
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
The fissile isotope uranium-235 fuels most nuclear reactors.
U-235 that absorbs a thermal neutron may go one of two
ways. About 82% of the time, it will
fission. About 18% of the time it will
not fission, instead emitting gamma
radiation and yielding U-236. Thus,
the yield of U-236 per 100 U-235+n
reactions is about 18%, and the yield
per 100 fissions is about 22%. In
comparison, the yields of the most
abundant individual fission products
like Cs-137, Sr-90, Tc-99 are between
6% and 7% per 100 fissions, 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 destroyed by
neutron capture.
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
Actinides and fission products by half-life
Uranium-236 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-236
1 of 4 1.3.2014 21:09
237
Np 2.1M6.5M
135
Cs
107
Pd
236
U
247
Cm

15M24M
129
I

244
Pu

80M
...nor beyond 15.7M
[5]
232
Th

238
U

235
U

0.7G14.1G
Legend for superscript symbols
has thermal neutron capture cross section in the range of 850 barns
fissile
m metastable isomer
naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM)
neutron poison (thermal neutron capture cross section greater than 3k barns)
range 4a97a: Medium-lived fission product
over 200ka: Long-lived fission product
reactor-grade plutonium (plutonium
recycled from spent fuel that was
originally made with enriched natural
uranium and then used once in an
LWR). Pu-240 decays with a half-life
of 6561 years into U-236. In a closed
nuclear fuel cycle, most Pu-240 will
be fissioned (possibly after more than
one neutron capture) before it decays,
but Pu-240 discarded as nuclear waste
will decay over thousands of years.
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
238
U(n,3n)
236
U reaction by fast neutrons in thermonuclear weapons. The
bomb-testing of 1950s and 1960s has raised the environmental abundance levels significantly above the
expected natural levels.
[6]
236
U, on absorption of a thermal neutron, does not undergo fission, but becomes
237
U, which quickly beta
decays to
237
Np. However, the neutron capture cross section of
236
U is low, and this process does not happen
quickly in a thermal reactor. Spent nuclear fuel typically contains about 0.4% U-236. With a much greater cross-
section,
237
Np may eventually absorb another neutron, becoming
238
Np, which quickly beta decays to
plutonium-238.
236
U and most other actinides 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
U-235, U-238, and thorium-232 occur in nature.)
Unlike plutonium, minor actinides, fission products, or activation products, chemical processes cannot separate
U-236 from U-238, U-235, U-232 or other uranium isotopes. It is even difficult to remove with isotopic
separation, as low enrichment will concentrate not only the desirable U-235 and U-233 but the undesirable
U-236, U-234 and U-232. On the other hand, U-236 in the environment cannot separate from U-238 and
concentrate separately, which limits its radiation hazard in any one place.
Uranium-236 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-236
2 of 4 1.3.2014 21:09
U-238's halflife is about 190 times as long as U-236; therefore U-236 should have about 190 times as much
specific activity. That is, in reprocessed uranium with 0.5% U-236, the U-236 and U-238 will produce about the
same level of radioactivity. (U-235 contributes only a few percent.)
The ratio is less than 190 when the decay products of each are included. U-238's decay chain 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 halflife of U-238, so that a sample of U-238 in equilibrium with its decay products (as in
natural uranium ore) will have eight times the alpha activity of U-238 alone. Even purified natural uranium
where the post-uranium decay products have been removed will contain an equilibrium quantity of U-234 and
therefore about twice the alpha activity of pure U-238. Enrichment to increase U-235 content will increase
U-234 to an even greater degree, and roughly half of this U-234 will survive in the spent fuel. On the other hand,
U-236 decays to thorium-232 which has a halflife of 14 billion years, equivalent to a decay rate only 31.4% as
great as that of U-238.
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 U-236.
[7]
Lighter:
uranium-235
uranium-236 is an
isotope of
uranium
Heavier:
uranium-237
Decay product of:
protactinium-236
neptunium-236
plutonium-240
Decay chain
of uranium-236
Decays to:
thorium-232
Depleted uranium
Uranium market
Nuclear reprocessing
United States Enrichment Corporation
Nuclear fuel cycle
Nuclear power
^ Plus radium (element 88). While actually a sub-actinide, it immediately precedes actinium (89) and follows a
three element gap of instability after polonium (84) where no isotopes have half-lives of at least four years (the
longest-lived isotope in the gap is radon-222 with a half life of less than four days). Radium's longest lived isotope,
at a notable 1600 years, thus merits the element's inclusion here.
1.
^ Specifically from thermal neutron fission of U-235, e.g. in a typical nuclear reactor. 2.
^ Milsted, J.; Friedman, A. M.; Stevens, C. M. (1965). "The alpha half-life of berkelium-247; a new long-lived
isomer of berkelium-248". Nuclear Physics 71 (2): 299. doi:10.1016/0029-5582(65)90719-4 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1016%2F0029-5582%2865%2990719-4).
3.
Uranium-236 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-236
3 of 4 1.3.2014 21:09
"The isotopic analyses disclosed a species of mass 248 in constant abundance in three samples analysed over a
period of about 10 months. This was ascribed to an isomer of Bk
248
with a half-life greater than 9 y. No growth of
Cf
248
was detected, and a lower limit for the

half-life can be set at about 10

4
y. No alpha activity attributable to
the new isomer has been detected; the alpha half-life is probably greater than 300 y."
^ This is the heaviest isotope with a half-life of at least four years before the "Sea of Instability". 4.
^ Excluding those "classically stable" isotopes with half-lives significantly in excess of
232
Th, e.g. while
113m
Cd
has a half-life of only fourteen years, that of
113
Cd is nearly eight quadrillion.
5.
^ Winkler, Stephan; Peter Steier, Jessica Carilli (2012). "Bomb fall-out 236U as a global oceanic tracer using an
annually resolved coral core" (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X12005638). Earth and
Planet. Sci. Lett. 359-360: 124130. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2012.10.004 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1016%2Fj.epsl.2012.10.004).
6.
^ http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/unep81.doc.htm 7.
Uranium | Radiation Protection Program | US EPA (http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides
/uranium.htm)
NLM Hazardous Substances Databank - Uranium, Radioactive (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin
/sis/search/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@na+@rel+uranium,+radioactive)
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