  Dark matter direct-detection searches for weakly interacting massive
particles (WIMPs) are commonly limited in sensitivity by neutron and gamma
backgrounds from the decay of radioactive isotopes. Several common
radioisotopes in detector construction materials are found in long decay
chains, notably those headed by 238U, 235U, and 232Th. Gamma radioassay using
Ge detectors identifies decay rates of a few of the radioisotopes in each
chain, and typically assumes that the chain is in secular equilibrium. If the
chains are out of equilibrium, detector background rates can be elevated
significantly above expectation. In this work we quantify the increase in
neutron and gamma production rates from an excess of various sub-chains of the
238U decay chain. We find that the 226Ra sub-chain generates x10 higher neutron
flux per decay than the 238U early sub-chain and 210Pb sub-chain, in materials
with high (alpha,n) neutron yields. Typical gamma screening results limit
potential 238U early sub-chain activity to x20-60 higher than 226Ra sub-chain
activity. Monte Carlo simulation is used to quantify the contribution of the
sub-chains of 238U to low-energy nuclear recoil (NR) and electron recoil (ER)
backgrounds in simplified one tonne liquid Ar and liquid Xe detectors. NR and
ER rates generated by 238U sub-chains in the Ar and Xe detectors are found
after comparable fiducial and multiple-scatter cuts. The Xe detector is found
to have x12 higher signal-to-background for 100 GeV WIMPs over neutrons than
the Ar detector. ER backgrounds in both detectors are found to increase weakly
for excesses of 238U early sub-chain and 210Pb sub-chain relative to 226Ra
sub-chain. Experiments in which backgrounds are NR-dominated are sensitive to
undetected excesses of 238U early sub-chain and 210Pb sub-chain concentrations.
Experiments with ER-dominated backgrounds are relatively insensitive to these
excesses.
