Put some Uranium 238 in a cloud chamber to see the radioactive particles
Uranium238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature, with a relative abundance of 99. Unlike uranium235, it is nonfissile, which means it cannot sustain a chain reaction in a thermalneutron reactor. However, it is fissionable by fast neutrons, and is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium239. 238U cannot support a chain reaction because inelastic scattering reduces neutron energy below the range where fast fission of one or more nextgeneration 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. Around of natural uranium s mass is uranium238, which has a halflife of 4. 468 billion years). Due to its natural abundance and halflife relative to other radioactive elements, 238U produces 40 of the radioactive heat produced within the Earth. The 238U decay chain contributes 6 electron antineutrinos pe
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