Re: Half-life(s) of Cf-252

[Bobby Coleman <colemanrl@ornl.gov>]

According to the "Rad Health Handbook -- 1970":

        

Cf-252

        

------

        

T1/2   
=  2.64 y

        

SF T1/2
=  85 y

ENSDF
http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nndc/nudat/
and Kocher (1981) list the atomic half-life at about 2.4 y with 3.1% SF-- which would be equivalent to an assumed SF half-life of 85.4 y.


  Bobby Coleman
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory

 

  colemanrl@ornl.gov


At 08:37 AM 11/8/00 -0600, you wrote:
> Somewhere in the deep recess of my mind (well, maybe not deep, but 
> definitely in recess) I seem to remember that Cf-252 has two different 
> half-lives, one for spontaneous fission, and one for alpha decay.  I cannot 
> find a reference for this (on my shelf), although I did find a line that 
> mentioned the effective half-life of Cf-252, so maybe the blonde hairs 
> haven't taken over completely.  Am I out to lunch on this?
> If I am indeed recalling this correctly, what is the mechanism that 
> determines the decay mode (like spin, etc.)?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Brian Rees
> brees@lanl.gov
>
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