uranium 235
Noun
Meaning
a uranium isotope with mass number 235; capable of sustaining chain reactions
Source: WordNetAlternative names
uranium-235
Hypernyms
Examples
Aggregate U-235 production About convert of uranium enriched to 89% uranium-235 was delivered to Los Alamos by July 1945.
A neutron is absorbed by the nucleus of a uranium-235 atom, which in turn splits into fast-moving lighter elements (fission products) and free neutrons.
At that point the fuel has to be replaced in the reactor with fresh fuel, even though there is still a substantial quantity of uranium-235 and plutonium present.
Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel that is typically enriched to around 3% uranium-235.
Confirmation of this hypothesis came in 1939, and later work found that on average about 2.5 neutrons are released by each fission of the rare uranium isotope uranium-235.
For the Gun-Type weapon development uranium-235 (an isotope that makes up only 0.7 percent of natural uranium) was required.