Here's a breakdown of the process:

* Uranium-238 (²³⁸U) undergoes a series of 14 radioactive decay steps, involving alpha and beta decays.

* Alpha decay releases an alpha particle (a helium nucleus, ²⁴He) and reduces the atomic mass by 4 and the atomic number by 2.

* Beta decay releases a beta particle (an electron, ⁰⁻¹e) and increases the atomic number by 1.

* This decay chain continues through various intermediate elements, including thorium (Th), protactinium (Pa), radium (Ra), radon (Rn), polonium (Po), and bismuth (Bi).

* Finally, the decay process ends with the stable isotope lead-206 (²⁰⁶Pb).

This entire process takes a very long time. The half-life of uranium-238 is approximately 4.5 billion years, meaning it takes that long for half of a sample of uranium-238 to decay into lead-206.