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It has a half life of 14.05 billion years, which makes it the longest-lived isotope of thorium. It decays by alpha decay to radium-228; its decay chain terminates at stable lead-208. Thorium-232 is a fertile material; it can capture a neutron to form thorium-233, which subsequently undergoes two successive beta decays to uranium-233, which is ...
It undergoes alpha decay to 224 Ra. Occasionally it decays by the unusual route of cluster decay, emitting a nucleus of 20 O and producing stable 208 Pb. It is a daughter isotope of 232 U in the thorium decay series. 228 Th has an atomic weight of 228.0287411 grams/mole. Together with its decay product 224 Ra it is used for alpha particle ...
The alpha decay of 232 Th initiates the 4n decay chain which includes isotopes with a mass number divisible by 4 (hence the name; it is also called the thorium series after its progenitor). This chain of consecutive alpha and beta decays begins with the decay of 232 Th to 228 Ra and terminates at 208 Pb. [16]
The stages or steps in a decay chain are referred to by their relationship to previous or subsequent stages. Hence, a parent isotope is one that undergoes decay to form a daughter isotope. For example element 92, uranium, has an isotope with 144 neutrons (236 U) and it decays into an isotope of element 90, thorium, with 142 neutrons (232 Th ...
The thorium fuel cycle is a nuclear fuel cycle that uses an isotope of thorium, 232 Th, as the fertile material. In the reactor, 232 Th is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 233 U which is the nuclear fuel. Unlike natural uranium, natural thorium contains only trace amounts of fissile material (such as 231 Th
Alpha decay is by far the most common form of cluster decay, where the parent atom ejects a defined daughter collection of nucleons, leaving another defined product behind. It is the most common form because of the combined extremely high nuclear binding energy and relatively small mass of the alpha particle.
In the thorium cycle, thorium-232 breeds by converting first to protactinium-233, which then decays to uranium-233. If the protactinium remains in the reactor, small amounts of uranium-232 are also produced, which has the strong gamma emitter thallium-208 in its decay chain.
All known thorium isotopes are unstable. The most stable isotope, 232 Th, has a half-life of 14.05 billion years, or about the age of the universe; it decays very slowly via alpha decay, starting a decay chain named the thorium series that ends at stable 208 Pb.