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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 was once named Radiothorium, due to its occurrence in the disintegration chain of thorium-232. It has a half-life of 1.9116 years. 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.
[73] [74] [75] The program is intended to use fertile thorium-232 to breed fissile uranium-233. India is also pursuing thorium thermal breeder reactor technology. India's focus on thorium is due to the nation's large reserves, though known worldwide reserves of thorium are four times those of uranium.
radium-215: 1.55 darmstadtium-271m: 1.7 astatine-191: 1.7 thorium-208: 1.7 thorium-221: 1.73 polonium-215: 1.781 hassium-265: 1.96 bismuth-185: 2 roentgenium-272: 2 astatine-191m: 2.1 radium-213m: 2.1 thorium-222: 2.237 uranium-215: 2.24 polonium-190: 2.46 fluorine-29: 2.5 flerovium-284: 2.5 bismuth-208m: 2.58 radium-202: 2.6 boron-19: 2.92 ...
The 4n chain of thorium-232 is commonly called the "thorium series" or "thorium cascade". Beginning with naturally occurring thorium-232, this series includes the following elements: actinium, bismuth, lead, polonium, radium, radon and thallium. All are present, at least transiently, in any natural thorium-containing sample, whether metal ...
Two radiometric dating methods involve thorium isotopes: uranium–thorium dating, based on the decay of 234 U to 230 Th, and ionium–thorium dating, which measures the ratio of 232 Th to 230 Th. [e] These rely on the fact that 232 Th is a primordial radioisotope, but 230 Th only occurs as an intermediate decay product in the decay chain of ...
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
U-232 hazards, a result of its highly radioactive decay products such as thallium-208, are significant even at 5 parts per million. Implosion nuclear weapons require U-232 levels below 50 PPM (above which the U-233 is considered "low grade"; cf. "Standard weapon grade plutonium requires a Pu-240 content of no more than 6.5%."