3% of the total uranium on Earth (0.72% today). This is high enough to permit a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction to occur, provided other supporting geologic conditions exist.
Uranium is weakly radioactive because all its isotopes are unstable. There are 27 known isotopes of uranium ranging in atomic weights 217–219, 222–240 and 242, with half-lives of from billions of years to a few nanoseconds. Naturally occurring uranium consists of three major isotopes: 238U (99.28% abundance), 235U (0.71%), and 234U (0.0054%). (The US DOE has adopted the value of 0.711 as being their official percentage of 235U in natural uranium.) All three isotopes are radioactive, with small probabilities of undergoing spontaneous fission but preferentially decaying by alpha emission. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years, making them useful in dating the age of the Earth. It also suggests that half of the uranium that existed from the formation of the Earth has decayed to other radioactive elements and eventually to stable elements. Much of the internal heat of the earth is thought to be attributable to the decay of uranium and thorium radio-isotopes.
Uranium-238 is an α-particle emitter (occasionally, it undergoes spontaneous fission), decaying through the "Uranium Series" of nuclear decay, which has 18 members, all of which eventually decay into lead-206, by a variety of different decay paths. The decay series of 235U, which is called the actinium series has 15 members, all of which eventually decay into lead-207. The constant rates of decay in these decay series make the comparison of the ratios of parent to daughter elements useful in radiometric dating. Uranium-234 is a member of the "Uranium Series", and it decays to lead-206 through a series of relatively short-lived isotopes. Uranium-233 is made from thorium-232 by neutron bombardment, usually in a nuclear reactor, and 233U is also fissile. Its decay series ends with thallium-205.
Uranium is the heaviest naturally-occurring element available in large quantities. The heavier “transuranic” elements are either man-made or they exist only as trace quantities in uranium ore deposits as activation products. Uranium occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals. Uranium, not as rare as once thought, is now considered to be more plentiful than mercury, antimony, silver, or cadmium, and is about as abundant as molybdenum or arsenic. It occurs in numerous natural minerals such as pitchblende, uraninite, carnotite, autunite, uranophane, and tobernite. It is also found in phosphate rocks, lignite, monazite sands, and is recovered commercially from these sources. The United States Department of Energy purchases uranium in the form of acceptable U3O8 concentrates. This incentive program has greatly increased the known uranium reserves.
Pure uranium is a silvery white, weakly radioactive metal, which is harder than most elements. It is malleable, ductile, slightly paramagnetic, strongly electropositive and is a poor electrical conductor. Uranium metal has very high density, being approximately 70% denser than lead, but slightly less dense than gold. Uranium metal exhibits in three crystallographic modifications: alpha --> (688°C) --> beta --> (776°C) --> gamma. Uranium is pyrophoric when finely divided. It is a little softer than steel and is attacked by cold water in a finely divided state.In air, uranium metal becomes coated with a layer of oxide. Acids dissolve the metal, forming the +3 oxidation state which oxidizes rapidly by water and air to form higher oxidation states. Uranium metal is unaffected by alkalis. Uranium metal can be prepared by reducing uranium halides with alkali or alkaline earth metals or by reducing uranium oxides by calcium, aluminum, or carbon at high temperatures. The metal can also be produced by electrolysis of KUF5 or UF4, dissolved in a molten salt mixture of CaCl2 and NaCl. High-purity uranium ca