Uranium-238 (U-238), is the most common
isotope of
uranium found in nature. When hit by a
neutron, it becomes
uranium-239 (U-239), an unstable element which
decays into
neptunium-239 (Np-239), which then itself decays, with a
half-life of 2.355 days, into
plutonium-239 (Pu-239). Around 99.284% of
natural uranium is uranium-238, which has a half-life of 1.41 × 1017
seconds (4.46 × 109 years, or 4.46 billion years).
Depleted uranium consists mainly of the 238 isotope, and
enriched uranium has a higher-than-natural quantity of the
uranium-235 isotope.
Reprocessed uranium is also mainly U-238, but contains significant quantities of
uranium-236, and in fact all the isotopes of uranium between
uranium-232 and uranium-238 except uranium-237.
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