 Quote by Astronuc
Note the long half-lives of U-238 and Th-232. I know from experience that the U-234 content of natural uranium is quite low. In enriched uranium, it is also quite low, as is the activity. I have handled natural and enriched UO2, and one task in a previous job was to verify the isotopic content of enriched U.
The content of Th-229 and 230 is less than 1% each, and the Th-232 content is generally greater than 99%.
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Since the halflife of uranium 234 is 18 000 times shorter than that of uranium 238, obviously its content is quite low. But since each uranium 238 nucleus decays into uranium 234 nucleus, uranium 234 activity is not low - it is necessarily equal to uranium 238 activity, and much bigger than uranium 235 activity. It increases further on enrichment.
Thorium 229 is not found in nature, because it belongs in neptunium series. The second longest lived thorium isotope, thorium 230, has halflife about 200 000 times shorter than thorium 232, so thorium with under 99 % thorium 232 would be quite hot.
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