Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The uranium isotope with mass number 235 and half-life 7.04 × 108 years, fissionable with slow neutrons and capable in a critical mass of sustaining a chain reaction that can proceed explosively with appropriate mechanical arrangements.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun physics An isotope of
uranium , used for energy generation and in atomic weapons, containing one hundred and forty-threeneutrons . It has ahalf-life of 7·038×108 years, whereupon itdecays into thorium-231.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But President Obama is talking about building new ones, massive gigawatt-sized reactors, and even smaller ones that would use thorium, rather than uranium-235.
Lee Schneider: Will We See Nuclear Progress in Japan? Lee Schneider 2011
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Today's reactors use dried wood—enriched uranium-235—that burns hot and quickly.
A Window Into the Nuclear Future Robert A. Guth 2011
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Richard Wakeford of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, at the University of Manchester, called such fears science fiction, pointing out there is not enough uranium-235 in the reactor to create a nuclear blast.
Blast rocks Fukushima reactor No. 2; radioactive leak feared 2011
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But they would still rely on uranium-235, a limited resource with safety and proliferation concerns.
Calculating the speed of light; building nuclear reactors Post 2010
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But President Obama is talking about building new ones, massive gigawatt-sized reactors, and even smaller ones that would use thorium, rather than uranium-235.
Lee Schneider: Will We See Nuclear Progress in Japan? Lee Schneider 2011
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These numbers compare with 200-210 MeV released by the fission of one uranium-235 or plutonium-239 atom.
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As uranium-235 molecules are lighter than the uranium-238 molecules, they move faster and have a slightly better chance of passing through the pores in the membrane.
Uranium enrichment 2009
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Uranium found in nature consists largely of two isotopes, uranium-235 (235U) and uranium-238 (238U).
Uranium enrichment 2009
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The essence of a conventional nuclear power reactor is the controlled fission chain reaction of uranium-235 (235U) and plutonium-239 (239Pu).
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Natural uranium has the same elemental composition as when it was mined (0.7% uranium-235 (235U), over 99.2% uranium-238 (238238U)), whereas enriched uranium has the proportion of the fissile isotope 235U increased by a process called enrichment, commonly to 3.5 - 5.0%.
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