Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The most common isotope of uranium, having mass number 238 and half-life 4.47 × 109 years, nonfissionable but may be irradiated with neutrons to produce fissionable plutonium-239.
Etymologies
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Examples
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(Presumably, the need for a license is a matter of degree, given that our own bodies contain radioactive potassium-40, and given that the walls of most buildings contain the radioactive isotopes from the natural uranium-238 and thorium-232 decay chains).
Archive 2009-04-01 Gordon McCabe 2009
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When unmanned probes were sent to explore Proteus in 2308, the radioactive decay of uranium-238 into thorium-230 revealed that the moon was not 4.6 billion years old as expected, but was less than 20,000 years old, making it the youngest astronomical body in the solar system.
365 tomorrows » 2009 » March : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009
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A traveling-wave reactor would start with a little bit of dried wood to get a hot flame going, but most of the fuel would be green, or wet, wood—depleted uranium-238.
A Window Into the Nuclear Future Robert A. Guth 2011
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The glazing contains a form of uranium-oxide, and a certain fraction of the uranium-238 nuclei will absorb the moderated neutrons, and thereby transform to uranium-239.
Archive 2009-04-01 Gordon McCabe 2009
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Moldovan authorities arrested three people on suspicion of trying to sell four pounds of uranium-238.
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For example, one of the most important isotopes for helium production is uranium-238.
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The fissile isotope of uranium is uranium-235 (235U); the remainder is mostly uranium-238 (238U).
Nuclear fuel cycle 2009
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Some of the uranium-238 in the fuel is turned into plutonium in the reactor core.
Nuclear fuel cycle 2009
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Small quantities of this material, which is primarily uranium-238, are used in applications where high-density material is required, including radiation shielding and in the production of MOX fuel.
Nuclear fuel cycle 2009
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Used fuel is about 95% uranium-238 but it also contains up to 1% uranium-235 that has not fissioned, about 1% plutonium and 3% fission products, which are highly radioactive, with other transuranic elements formed in the reactor.
Nuclear fuel cycle 2009
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