Animal studies suggest that uranium may affect reproduction, the developing fetus, and increase the risk of leukemia and soft tissue cancers. Uranium is also chemically toxic at high concentrations and can cause damage to internal organs, notably the kidneys. If inhaled or ingested, however, its radioactivity poses increased risks of lung cancer and bone cancer. Uranium-238 emits alpha particles which are less penetrating than other forms of radiation, and weak gamma rays As long as it remains outside the body, uranium poses little health hazard (mainly from the gamma-rays).
#Half life of uranium series#
After several more alpha and beta decays, the series ends with the stable isotope lead-206. The various decay products, (sometimes referred to as “progeny” or “daughters”) form a series starting at uranium-238. Uranium-238 decays by alpha emission into thorium-234, which itself decays by beta emission to protactinium-234, which decays by beta emission to uranium-234, and so on. Uranium-238, the most prevalent isotope in uranium ore, has a half-life of about 4.5 billion years that is, half the atoms in any sample will decay in that amount of time. These three kinds of radiation have very different properties in some respects but are all ionizing radiation–each is energetic enough to break chemical bonds, thereby possessing the ability to damage or destroy living cells. It is often also accompanied by emission of gamma radiation, which is electromagnetic radiation, like X-rays. This process, known as radioactive decay, generally results in the emission of alpha or beta particles from the nucleus. The nuclei of radioactive elements are unstable, meaning they are transformed into other elements, typically by emitting particles (and sometimes by absorbing particles). Natural uranium consists of three isotopes: uranium-238, uranium-235, and uranium-234. Uranium is the principal fuel for nuclear reactors and the main raw material for nuclear weapons. In 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann showed that uranium could be split into parts to yield energy.
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Some of the terms used in this factsheet are defined in IEER’s on-line glossary.įirst discovered in the 18th century, uranium is an element found everywhere on Earth, but mainly in trace quantities.