Physics of fission reactors: exercise set 1, exercise 10

Klemen Cerkovnik

1 Exercise instructions
Estimate the age of the materials from which the Earth is made, if we assume that uranium
isotopes 235 U and 238 U were equally represented at formation.

2 Solution
We assume that in the begining there was the same number of 235 U and 238 U atoms. Each
isotope then decayed to the fraction we now find in nature. We already know that decay is
exponential, so we can write:
N 238 N0238 e−λ238 t
= , (1)
N 235 N0235 e−λ235 t
where N0235 is number of 235 U atoms at formation of Earth and N 235 is current number of
235
U atoms. Now we just reorder equation:
N 238
(λ235 −λ238 )t N 235
e = N0238
, (2)
N0235
  238   238 
1 N N0
⇒t= ln − ln . (3)
λ235 − λ238 N 235 N0235
In chart of nuclides we find half life not decay constant, so we rewrite equation with half life:
  238   238 
1 N N0
t=  ln − ln . (4)
N0235

1 1 N 235
ln 2 t235 − t238
1/2 1/2

Half life and fraction of 235 U and 238 U in natural uranium we find in chart of nuclides. With
238 235
data: t235
1/2 = 2.22 · 10
16
s, t238
1/2 = 1.41 · 10
17
s, NNtotal = 99.2742% and NNtotal = 0.7204% we get
the result:
t = 1.87 · 1017 s = 5.9 · 109 years (5)
Real age of Earth is 4.5 · 109 years, so we know, that in the beginning there were more 238
U
atoms than 235 U atoms.

238 235
Figure 1: Decreasing number ration between U and U atoms from formation of Earth
till now.