Home

U236

U236, also written as uranium-236, is an isotope of uranium with mass number 236. It is formed primarily by neutron capture on uranium-235 in nuclear reactors and in spent fuel, where U-235 absorbs a neutron to become U-236.

It is unstable and radioactive, with a long half-life on the order of several hundred thousand years,

Natural uranium contains only trace amounts of U-236; it is not produced in significant quantities outside

Chemical behavior: As with other uranium isotopes, U-236 primarily exists in oxidation state +4 under reducing

Its production contributes to the inventory of long-lived actinides and radiological considerations in fuel reprocessing and

See also: Uranium-235, Uranium-238, Uranium-233, Nuclear fission, Neptunium-236.

and
decays
via
beta
minus
decay
to
neptunium-236.
of
nuclear
irradiation.
In
reactor
physics
and
nuclear
forensics,
U-236
is
used
as
a
tracer
to
study
neutron
flux
and
burnup
because
its
presence
indicates
neutron
capture
on
U-235.
conditions
and
forms
the
uranyl
ion
UO2^2+
in
oxidizing
conditions.
waste
management.
The
isotope
is
of
interest
for
understanding
irradiation
histories
in
reactors
and
for
modeling
the
behavior
of
spent
fuel.