[ RadSafe ] Massive Particle Radiation

[Leo M. Lowe]

Hi,

It's late Friday afternoon, so the following trivia is provided.

In Radsafe responses to a news item on a cancer treatment that stated 
that "Alpha particles... are the most massive particles emitted as 
radiation", it was noted that Li7 and C12, both more massive than 
alpha particles, are emitted as radiation in some cases.

In fact, certain heavy nuclei decay (at extremely low rates) by the 
emission of much more massive particles, such as O20, Mg28 and 
Si32.  Apparently, this "cluster decay" has been observed in 22 
radionuclides.  The branching ratios relative to alpha decay of the 
radionuclides  are in the order of  10(-10).  This issue was noted 
previously on Radsafe.

Cheers,

Leo M. Lowe, Ph.D., P.Phys.