uranium-233
Sign in to saveUranium-233 (' or U-233') is a fissile isotope of uranium that is bred from thorium-232 as part of the thorium fuel cycle. Uranium-233 was investigated for use in nuclear weapons and as a reactor fuel. It has been used successfully in experimental nuclear reactors and has been proposed for much wider use as a nuclear fuel. It has a half-life of 159,200 years to alpha decay and is a part of the neptunium decay chain.
Key facts
- Isotope.parent2_symbol
- Np
- Isotope.parent2_decay
- b+
- Isotope.image
- FLiBe-Solid.gif
- Isotope.image_caption
- An ampoule containing solidified pieces of aFLiBe and uranium-233 tetrafluoride mixture
- Isotope.mass_number
- 233
- Isotope.symbol
- U
- Isotope.num_neutrons
- 141
- Isotope.num_protons
- 92
- Isotope.halflife
- 159,200 years
- Isotope.decay_product
- Thorium-229
- Isotope.decay_mass
- 229
- Isotope.decay_symbol
- Th
- Isotope.parent
- Plutonium-237
- Isotope.parent_mass
- 237
- Isotope.parent_symbol
- Pu
- Isotope.parent_decay
- a
- Isotope.parent2
- Neptunium-233
- Isotope.parent2_mass
- 233
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Fissile material
- Nuclear fuel
- Energy released
- Weapon material
- Further information
- See also
- Notes
Uranium-233 (' or U-233) is a fissile isotope of uranium that is bred from thorium-232 as part of the thorium fuel cycle. Uranium-233 was investigated for use in nuclear weapons and as a reactor fuel. It has been used successfully in experimental nuclear reactors and has been proposed for much wider use as a nuclear fuel. It has a half-life of 159,200 years to alpha decay and is a part of the neptunium decay chain.
Uranium-233 is produced by the neutron irradiation of thorium-232. When thorium-232 absorbs a neutron, it becomes thorium-233, which has a half-life of about 22 minutes. Thorium-233 decays into protactinium-233 through beta decay. Protactinium-233 has a longer half-life of about 27 days to further decay into uranium-233; some proposed molten salt reactor designs attempt to physically isolate the protactinium from further neutron capture before beta decay can occur, to maintain the neutron economy (if it misses the 233U window, the next fissile target is 235U, meaning a total of 4 neutrons needed to trigger fission).