Uranium 238 Puns

I see this text in a lot of proving earths age posts.

>The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years. It decays into radium-226, which in turn decays into radon-222. Radon-222 becomes polonium-210, which finally decays into a stable nuclide, lead.

I fully believe earth is 4.5 billon years old. But using this example, wouldn’t earth need to be older than that in order to have time for uranium-238 to decay all the way down to lead? I feel like no one is ever worried we’re going to run out of lead as a resource.

Hey everyone, I'm new to Nuclear Physics and I just can't get my head around Uranium and it's Isotopes. In the video I am watching it states the three naturally occurring isotopic forms of Uranium. Them being 234, 235 and 238. But 238 is the official atomic weight of the element Uranium on the periodic table. So shouldn't atomic weights above or below 238 be considered isotopes of Uranium as it's different from the original 238.

Basically I just don't understand how 238 can be the stated atomic weight of the Element and also be considered an Isotope, I thought the nature of an isotope is to have a difference in atomic weight that is stated from the periodic table, all while maintaining the same atomic number? So anything above or below 238 is an isotope. Have I got Isotopes wrong? If anyone can help it would be appreciated, thank you.

Sorry if this is a rediculous question and worded poorly.

So started collecting elements and I wanted to buy some uranium to add to my collection. I’m sure that keeping such a small amount and not handling it often is ok, but since I’m not a professional I wanted the opinions of people who actually know what they’re talking about and can tell me the health hazards of going through with this. I apologize if this isn’t really the place for this or if this is a silly question but I didn’t know where else to ask.

Edit: this where I would buy the uranium from if anyone’s interested (I’ve bought other elements from them before and so far they’re amazing have had no issues): https://luciteria.com/elements-for-sale/buy-uranium

I have a full 24x24x24 fission reactor running TBU fuel, which I am then reprocessing in an isotope separator for other bits of uranium, but I can't seem to figure out how to make uranium-238. I'd seen something about using a thermal centrifuge, but that machine doesn't exist in my game?? Otherwise, it looks like reprocessing spent cells would give some, but I need 238 to make those fuel cells to begin with. 🥴 Someone know how to do this?

Uranium 235 is unstable, but uranium 238 even though heavier by an atomic mass of three is stable. Why is this? In what way does the addition of three neutrons to the nucleus make it less susceptible to fission?

I asked on r/chemistry but was just told that a heavy atom with a high neutron to proton ratio is stable. I thought maybe someone here could give me insight into why.

Just curie-ous

We see tons of pictures of other elements but there are every few of these, espically plutonium.

I have always believed that radioactive metals glowed green but turns out they don't and that saddens me lol. But could the reason that plutonium is unstable or does it break cameras or something?

If anyone knows where I can find more images , espically plutonium other then the ones that are already on google please let me know.

I'm sorry If this does not long belong here just let me know and il delete it.

I understand the premise of neutron moderators and that U-238 is fissionable but not fissile. However, I don't understand how to reconcile these two ideas.

As I understand it, moderators lower the kinetic energy of fast neutrons until they are thermal neutrons and are more likely to fission various nuclides. I also know that moderators such as heavy water and graphite can allow for natural, unenriched uranium (mostly 238) to be used as fuel. However, I've also read that U-238 only tends to fission from fast neutron capture and that its own fission product neutrons are not typically fast enough to sustain a chain reaction. How exactly do moderators help with this?

I've searched so many resources to find an answer to this, but everyone just seems to say "moderators allow natural uranium to be used as fuel" without specifying how when (based on my reading) U-238 requires fast neutrons to fission. Does U-238 actually fission with thermal neutrons as well but only with a very small cross-section and moderators just drastically increase the frequency of collisions? That's the only answer I can come up with, but I'm no nuclear physicist.

As my power needs keep getting bigger, I find myself with an ever growing daisy chain of steel chests to manage all my surplus U-238. Is there a better way?

Processing uranium ore through the IC2 path seems to get you the most U-238, and thus seems to make perfect sense...until you need to make DU Plate for nuclearcraft, that is. It seems perfectly usable for nuclearcraft reactor fuel recipes, so why this one exception? I honestly can't tell if this was an oversight or some screwy "balance" thing.

Edit: after looking at things more, they're not as shared as I thought they were. I'll leave this here in case someone down the line has the same thought, so they hopefully have better luck googling for an answer than I did.

I don't even know why I still bother building with hydrogen or helium when other Elementals show up. Sure, it's always good to be cautious, but H and He are interlaced throughout the universe itself-- I've never met another Elemental in my life, from any other quadrant, that couldn't build or burn H.

He tried to crystallize my heart, but I shifted it, leaving a pocket of air in its place, then burned hydrogen in a bubble around him. A wall of Tantalum Carbide surrounded him first, shielding him from the heat, and he launched out of the miniature star burning where he once was. That bought me enough time to reset my organs -- being a carbon-based lifeform was both a blessing and a curse -- and pull back a bit.

"Halifax, are you alright up there?" a voice crackled into my ear.

"I'm fine. This guy's a pain in the ass, though. Any idea where he's from?"

"No. H and He are green for him?"

"Obviously. He's got the big 6, plus Ta and Na from what I've seen so far. I can't control any part of his body, though. It's something we haven't seen."

"Try and get a piece of him if you can. Been a while since a Destroyer this strong has shown up from an unknown region."

"I'll try. Let me know if you guys need help with that red giant he created near Mars."

"No, you focus on getting him away from here before he can do any more damage."

A meteor careened toward me, at least a mile in width, and I burned hydrogen, cutting through it, then deconstructing the smaller pieces. "That's going to be a little hard, as you can imagine. Do we have any data on his arrival? Where? What direction, how?"

"No. It seems he just... appeared."

"Fantastic," I said, whizzing just past Saturn, continuing to lure him as far away from home as possible. Thankfully, he seemed okay with that. "Backup on the way?"

There was a grainy pause, then a sigh. "Not for a while. Sorry, Hal, but you know how bad this timing is. We're stretched on two other fronts right now."

"Shit. Fine." I encrusted myself in ice and rock, and floated into Saturn's ring. "I'm gonna have to go hard, then."

"Well, hold on, now--"

"I can't fight him blind like this, Cid. I need to get the upper hand before he burns or builds something I'm not aware of."

"Hal, we need to do this the usual way."

A beam of Krypton sliced through the ring, taking off my leg. I screamed, but grabbed and reattached it before it could float off into nowhere. "I can't. Add Kr."

I dipped into some of my U-238 reserves, taking a stea

Even though it’s not a “productive” recipe, I think it would be both fun and hilarious if we could make landfill out of spent nuclear fuel, as trashing the environment is Factorio tradition. Recipe could be a mix of stone and nuc fuel, making the recipe use less stone.

Using uranium 238 is a better idea actually. 10 stone+10 uranium 238 or so.

Not game changing or important, I just want to bury my nuclear waste.