Rigby5
Diamond Member
Wrong. U-238 is very dangerous to inhale once vaporized. The fact there are things more dangerous, does not matter.
Enrichment is NOT just a filtering process refining the most reactive isotopes from less reactive ore.
For example, the enrichment of plutonium is created by bombardment in a reactor, to make the isotope heavier.
{...
Plutonium was first synthetically produced and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by a deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the 1.5-metre (60 in) cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. First, neptunium-238 (half-life 2.1 days) was synthesized, which subsequently beta-decayed to form the new element with atomic number 94 and atomic weight 238 (half-life 88 years). Since uranium had been named after the planet Uranus and neptunium after the planet Neptune, element 94 was named after Pluto, which at the time was considered to be a planet as well. Wartime secrecy prevented the University of California team from publishing its discovery until 1948.
Plutonium is the element with the highest atomic number to occur in nature. Trace quantities arise in natural uranium-238 deposits when uranium-238 captures neutrons emitted by decay of other uranium-238 atoms.
Both plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile, meaning that they can sustain a nuclear chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Plutonium-240 exhibits a high rate of spontaneous fission, raising the neutron flux of any sample containing it.
...}
So U-238 was bombarded and turned into the heavier Pu-239, 240, and 241, which are all heavier and more fissile.
