Trace radioisotope

A trace radioisotope is a radioisotope that occurs naturally in trace amounts (i.e., extremely small). Generally speaking, trace radioisotopes have half-lives that are short in comparison to the age of the Earth, since primordial nuclides tend to occur in larger than trace amounts. Trace radioisotopes are therefore present only because they are continually produced on Earth by natural processes. Natural processes which produce trace radioisotopes include cosmic ray bombardment of stable nuclides, ordinary alpha and beta decay of the long-lived heavy nuclides, thorium-232, uranium-238, and uranium-235, spontaneous fission of uranium-238, and nuclear transmutation reactions induced by natural radioactivity, such as the production of plutonium-239[1] and uranium-236[2] from neutron capture[3] by natural uranium.

Elements

The elements that are created only from decay are listed below.

Element name Chemical
Symbol
Technetium Tc
Promethium Pm
Polonium Po
Astatine At
Radon Rn
Francium Fr
Radium Ra
Actinium Ac
Protactinium Pa
Neptunium Np

Isotopes of other elements:

References

  1. Curtis, David; Fabryka-Martin, June; Paul, Dixon; Cramer, Jan (1999). "Nature's uncommon elements: plutonium and technetium". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 63 (2): 275–285. Bibcode:1999GeCoA..63..275C. doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(98)00282-8.
  2. http://esarda2.jrc.it/references/Technical_sheets/ts-mass-spectrometry-071212.pdf
  3. Wilcken, K.~M.; Barrows, T. T.; Fifield, L. K.; Tims, S. G.; Steier, P. (June 2007). "AMS of natural 236 U and 239Pu produced in uranium ores". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B. 259: 727–732. Bibcode:2007NIMPB.259..727W. doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2007.01.210.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.