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Radiological aspects of uranium cont'd |
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|  Radiological Assessor Training
DOE-HDBK-1141-2001
Student's Guide
Specialized reactor fuel may have enrichments
other than those listed above.
The uranium byproduct of enrichment is reduced
in Uranium-235 content and is called depleted
uranium. Its typical composition is as follows:
99.75% Uranium-238
0.20% Uranium-235
0.0007% Uranium-234
As a result of the differences in specific
activities, Uranium-234 may account for a
significant fraction, or even the majority, of the
radioactivity for enriched uranium.
For example, for 3% enriched uranium (i.e., 3%
Uranium-235), the Uranium-234 (with an
abundance of 0.03%) would have approximately
6 times the activity as Uranium-238 and
approximately 30 times the activity as
Uranium-235.
Uranium-238 and Uranium-234 are part of the
uranium decay series, while Uranium-235 is part
of the actinium series. Therefore, following
chemical separation, decay products will
continue to grow in. The most significant of
these are Thorium-234 and Protactinium-234m
from the uranium series and Thorium-231 from
the actinium series.
Other small amounts of radioactive material may
be present as the result of reprocessing
uranium. These include Neptunium, Plutonium,
Technetium-99, and other radioisotopes of
uranium, including Uranium-232 and
Uranium-236.
Module 6 - 2
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