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Specific activity (symbol a) is the activity per unit mass of a radionuclide and is a physical property of that radionuclide. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is usually given in units of becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg), but another commonly used unit of specific activity is the curie per gram (Ci/g).
The fissile isotope uranium-235 fuels most nuclear reactors.When 235 U absorbs a thermal neutron, one of two processes can occur.About 85.5% of the time, it will fission; about 14.5% of the time, it will not fission, instead emitting gamma radiation and yielding 236 U. [1] [2] Thus, the yield of 236 U per 235 U+n reaction is about 14.5%, and the yield of fission products is about 85.5%.
The extraction of uranium from seawater has been considered as a means of obtaining the element. Because of the very low specific activity of uranium the chemical effects of it upon living things can often outweigh the effects of its radioactivity. Plutonium, like other actinides, readily forms a plutonium dioxide (plutonyl) core (PuO 2).
Total activity (or just activity), A, is the number of decays per unit time of a radioactive sample. Number of particles, N, in the sample. Specific activity, a, is the number of decays per unit time per amount of substance of the sample at time set to zero (t = 0). "Amount of substance" can be the mass, volume or moles of the initial sample.
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium radioactively decays, usually by emitting an alpha particle.
In a fission nuclear reactor, uranium-238 can be used to generate plutonium-239, which itself can be used in a nuclear weapon or as a nuclear-reactor fuel supply. In a typical nuclear reactor, up to one-third of the generated power comes from the fission of 239 Pu, which is not supplied as a fuel to the reactor, but rather, produced from 238 U. [5] A certain amount of production of 239
Some early evidence for nuclear fission was the formation of a short-lived radioisotope of barium which was isolated from neutron irradiated uranium (139 Ba, with a half-life of 83 minutes and 140 Ba, with a half-life of 12.8 days, are major fission products of uranium).
Uranium-235 makes up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a fission chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that is a primordial nuclide or found in significant quantity in nature. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years.