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This is a list of radioactive nuclides (sometimes also called isotopes), ordered by half-life from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10 −19 and 10 −10 seconds. [1]
Carbon-14 (and other isotopes generated by cosmic rays) and daughters of radioactive primordial elements, such as radium, polonium, etc. 41 of these have a half life of greater than one hour. Radioactive synthetic half-life ≥ 1.0 hour). Includes most useful radiotracers. 662 989 These 989 nuclides are listed in the article List of nuclides.
Half-life (symbol t ½) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value.The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable atoms survive.
Strontium-90 is a radioactive byproduct produced by nuclear reactors used in nuclear power. It is a component of nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel. The half life is long, around 30 years, and is classified as high-level waste. [13] Researchers have looked at the bioaccumulation of strontium by Scenedesmus spinosus in simulated wastewater.
At least 3,300 nuclides have been experimentally characterized [1] (see List of radioactive nuclides by half-life for the nuclides with decay half-lives less than one hour). A nuclide is defined conventionally as an experimentally examined bound collection of protons and neutrons that either is stable or has an observed decay mode.
All radionuclides contained in the waste have a half-life—the time it takes for half of the atoms to decay into another nuclide. Eventually, all radioactive waste decays into non-radioactive elements (i.e., stable nuclides). Since radioactive decay follows the half-life rule, the rate of decay is inversely proportional to the duration of decay.
For example, carbon-14, a radioactive nuclide with a half-life of only 5700(30) years, [27] is constantly produced in Earth's upper atmosphere due to interactions between cosmic rays and nitrogen. Nuclides that are produced by radioactive decay are called radiogenic nuclides, whether they themselves are stable or not.
Conversely, of the 251 known stable nuclides, only five have both an odd number of protons and odd number of neutrons: hydrogen-2 , lithium-6, boron-10, nitrogen-14, and tantalum-180m. Also, only four naturally occurring, radioactive odd–odd nuclides have a half-life >10 9 years: potassium-40, vanadium-50, lanthanum-138, and lutetium-176.