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The primary decay modes before the most stable isotope, 244 Pu, are spontaneous fission and alpha decay; the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay products before 244 Pu are isotopes of uranium and neptunium (not considering fission products ), and the primary decay products after are isotopes of americium .
A chart or table of nuclides maps the nuclear, or radioactive, behavior of nuclides, as it distinguishes the isotopes of an element.It contrasts with a periodic table, which only maps their chemical behavior, since isotopes (nuclides that are variants of the same element) do not differ chemically to any significant degree, with the exception of hydrogen.
The radioactive decay modes of electron capture and internal conversion are known to be slightly sensitive to chemical and environmental effects that change the electronic structure of the atom, which in turn affects the presence of 1s and 2s electrons that participate in the decay process.
Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years. [1]
The decay scheme of a radioactive substance is a graphical presentation of all the transitions occurring in a decay, and of their relationships. Examples are shown below. It is useful to think of the decay scheme as placed in a coordinate system, where the vertical axis is energy, increasing from bottom to top, and the horizontal axis is the proton number, increasing from left to right.
Alpha decay, the release of a high-energy helium nucleus, is the most common form of radioactive decay for plutonium. [11] A 5 kg mass of 239 Pu contains about 12.5 × 10 24 atoms. With a half-life of 24,100 years, about 11.5 × 10 12 of its atoms decay each second by emitting a 5.157 MeV alpha particle. This amounts to 9.68 watts of power.
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Chart of nuclides by type of decay. Black squares are stable nuclides. Nuclides with excessive neutrons or protons are unstable to β − (light blue) or β + (green) decay, respectively. At high atomic number, alpha emission (orange) or spontaneous fission (dark blue) become common decay modes.