Jul 29, 2010 · I wrote a program to find the percent of each element in the decay chain for U 238 after a certain amount of time. I used the Bateman equations for serial decay chain below: I have a working program but I don't know if the numbers are right. This is the output after 4.468e9 year, the half-life of U 238: U-238 50.0% Th-234 7.38402118408e-10%

Feb 28, 2017 · If that is correct, are the tracks being produced continuously and in equal amounts? Also, does that mean the radioactive decay chain of U-238 starts happening from the very first moment of the U-238's existence and continues to happen without ever stopping until all the atoms become stable lead? Thanks! We really appreciate your help.

Mar 24, 2006 · U235 can decay after absorbing a very low energy but U238 needs a large energy to decay, so that a chain reaction used U235, right?? other questions, why U238 needs a large energy to decay but U235 only needs < 1eV. The stability …

Jul 24, 2021 · TL;DR Summary In reading through The Physics of Energy, the textbook describes the decay chain of U-238: "The longest half-life of any descendent in the chain is less 1 million years. Many half-lives are much shorter, making those nuclides very radioactive." Why does having a short half-life make a radionuclide very radioactive?

Feb 21, 2006 · Looking at the U238 deay chain as an example, I understand that anything with a Protron No. above the line of stability on the Nuclide chart go through Beta+ or electron capture and anything below the line of stability go through Beta- decay. What is confusing me is how do I predict which ones will go through Alpha decay?

Dec 1, 2009 · Bi-210 decays to Po-210 by beta decay (half life = 7.2 days), and this decays by alpha decay to Pb-208 (half life = 200 decays). If A substance is initially pure Bi-210, when does the alpha emmision peak?

Jun 27, 2012 · One last thing. For the gamma rays, do the intensities represent the probability of getting that gamma ray energy? They appear to be very low since U-238 does not decay to the ground state of Th-234 ~21% of the time. I would think that Th-234 needs to be in its ground state before it can decay to Pa-234 but I might be wrong.

Apr 15, 2016 · Does anyone know how this gamma-ray peak is being generated? I've looked at the decay chain for U-238, but could not find any references to a 97 keV peak.

Apr 27, 2014 · I have a really basic question about radioactive decay. If it takes 4.4 billion years for uranium-238 to decay into thorium-234, how can the decay rate be measured? What intermediate activity is taking place that would give an indication of the time it would take an atom to decay into the next element in the decay chain?

Sep 10, 2005 · The question is: Assume an atom just became Lead-206--why would such an assumption be important?--when it was orginally Uranium-238. Show all the steps it took to get from 238U to 206Pb. For each step, indicate the nature of the decay. Assume also that it spent exactly 1 half-life as each of...