Uranium Isotope Decay

initial number of atoms

7.5×

9

10

decay constant

2.2924×

-9

10

Uranium-235

Uranium-238

generic

This Demonstration shows radioactive decay for the two most abundant uranium isotopes, U-238 and U-235. These have the form of exponential decay:

N(t)=

N

0

-kt

e

,

where

N(t)

is the number of nuclei remaining at time

t

(in years) for an initial number

N

0

in the sample, and

k

is the decay constant, which is specific to the individual isotope:

k=1.54×

-10

10

-1

yr

for U-238 and

k=9.90×

-10

10

-1

yr

for U-235. Decay graphs of U-238 (in blue) and U-235 (in orange) are plotted. Also shown (in green) is a generic decay curve for the selected decay constant. The red dots mark the half-life of each decay.

References

[1] "Is Uranium Radioactive?" Depleted UF6. (Mar 29, 2023) web.evs.anl.gov/uranium/faq/uproperties/faq5.cfm.

Permanent Citation

Anushka Dalvi, Mindy Huang, Jack Rickle

"Uranium Isotope Decay"
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/UraniumIsotopeDecay/
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Published: April 11, 2023