Uranium-238

10 gram sample

Uranium-238 (²³⁸U or U-238) is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature and is used as a fuel in nuclear power plants. It can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239. ²³⁸U is fissionable by fast neutrons, and cannot support a chain reaction because inelastic scattering reduces neutron energy below the range where fast fission of one or more next-generation nuclei is probable. Doppler broadening of U-238's neutron absorption resonances, increasing absorption as fuel temperature increases, is also an essential negative feedback mechanism for reactor control.

Around 99.284% of natural uranium is uranium-238, which has a half-life of 1.41×10¹⁷seconds (4.468×10⁹ years, or 4.468 billion years).Depleted uranium has an even higher concentration of the ²³⁸U isotope, and even low-enriched uranium (LEU), while having a higher proportion of the uranium-235 isotope (in comparison to depleted uranium), is still mostly ²³⁸U. Reprocessed uranium is also mainly ²³⁸U, with about as much uranium-235 as natural uranium, a comparable proportion of uranium-236, and much smaller amounts of other isotopes of uranium such as uranium-234, uranium-233, and uranium-232.