Nuclear reactor physics
Modern deposits of uranium contain only up to ~0.7% U (and ~99.3% U), which is not enough to sustain a chain reaction moderated by ordinary water. But U has a much shorter half-life (700 million years) than U (4.5 billion years), so in the distant past the percentage of U was much higher. About two billion years ago, a water-saturated uranium deposit (in what is now the Oklo mine in Gabon, West Africa) underwent a naturally occurring chain reaction that was moderated by groundwater and, presumably, controlled by the negative void coefficient as the water boiled from the heat of the reaction. Uranium from the Oklo mine is about 50% depleted compared to other locations: it is only about 0.3% to 0.7% U; and the ore contains traces of stable daughters of long-decayed fission products.Fermi age theory
Einsteinium
Nineteen nuclides and three nuclear isomers are known for einsteinium with atomic weights ranging from 240 to 258. All are radioactive and the most stable nuclide, Es, has a half-life of 471.7 days. Next most stable isotopes are Es (half-life 275.7 days), Es (39.8 days) and Es (20.47 days). All of the remaining isotopes have half-lives shorter than 40 hours, and most of them decay within less than 30 minutes. Of the three nuclear isomers, the most stable is Es with half-life of 39.3 hours.