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Stable Uranium


aman

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I just had a wild hair thought about the instability of all the elements above Bismuth. If an external energy was used to certain specs do you think it is feasable that radioactive elements could be stabilized by it so they didn't decay?

Just aman

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are stable forms of Uranium, such as U238. Stability of an isotope can be determined by looking at the semi empirical mass formula. this is a nifty little formula which allows you to calculate the binding energy of an atom and see if it is stable or not. if you include gravity as a perturbation, you end up finding that the lowest mass for a proton free atom to be stable is about the size of a neutron star. neat eh?

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Uranium-238 is an UNSTABLE radioisotope; it decays into Lead-206, a stable chemical element, with thirteen intermediate unstable radioisotopes in between (Uranium-238 decays into Thorium-234, which decays into Protactinium-234, and so on to Lead-206). The reason for the instability is the 6 electrons orbiting the F period (that is suppose to hold 14 electrons). It can be combined with other elements to create a stable COMPOUND, but not a stable Uranium element.

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What had me interested is the fact that depleted Uranium is targeted as being a filler for storage of other radioactive isotopes. I think it is UF6. It is poured between drums to act as a shield better than Lead for radiation and stops it better. I can't find a stabilty or radiation level for UF6 in my search as yet.

Just aman

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aman said in post #12 :

What had me interested is the fact that depleted Uranium is targeted as being a filler for storage of other radioactive isotopes. I think it is UF6. It is poured between drums to act as a shield better than Lead for radiation and stops it better. I can't find a stabilty or radiation level for UF6 in my search as yet.

Just aman

 

UF6 is a gas (under the right conditions) It's formed so that one can use gas membrane diffusion or gas centrifuge for the enrichment of uranium.

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OH God, u guys are confusing me. Uranium 238 is more stable than 235. This is why peopel have to use a nuclear reactor. To fish out the 235 which can be used in nuke bombs! Because 238 just doesn't work to cause a chain reaction. Does that help?

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If you mean 'This is why peopel have to use a nuclear reactor, to fish out the 235 which can be used in nuke bombs!', you're incorrect. The uranium is seperated in a purely physical/chemical process. A nuclear reactor would be pretty useless in creating fissile uranium because its fuel is fissile uranium. It's like expecting a car to produce petrol.

 

Plutonium is produced in nuclear reactors though :coolio:

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U235 and Pu 239 are weapons grade materials, the U238`s often used in power generator Reactors and Breeder Reactors, the most common assembly is the latice form in the hetrogenous reactors.

eitherway, they last a LOOOOOONG time and are far from stable :)

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aommaster said in post #18 :

Well, then how do they get U235? And what is the nuclear reactor used for (i thought they used it for that reason)

 

They use the fact that U238 compounds will be heavier than U235 ones, and seperate them physically.

 

Nuclear reactors are used to, like, generate electricity duder.

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YT2095 said in post #22 :

hence the reason saddam was partly busted for ordering several high strength Alu tubes for a centrifuge, used to seperate U235 from U238.

it`s classed as a Laboratory Precursor :)

 

Dude, there was NO evidence that he was developing WMD's.

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