[ RadSafe ] Re: Radium to Carbon?

[Leo M. Lowe]

The direct decay of Ra-226 to Pb-212 by C-14 emission is know as cluster 
decay, which has been observed in several heavy radionuclides.  Besides 
C-14, the emission of C-12, O-20, Ne-24, Mg-28 and Si-32  clusters has been 
observed.

Cluster decay is extremely infrequent, in the order of 1E-10 or less 
relative to alpha decay of these radionuclides.  It basically relates to 
the probability of the clusters tunneling through the potential decay 
barrier of the nucleus.

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In refreshing my memory on Radium 226, I stumbled onto a site that stated 
that Ra 226 can sometimes decay directly to Pb 212 by emission of a Carbon 
14 nucleus.  This was totally new to me.  Can anyone enlighten me?

Harry Reynolds
_____________________________________________________
Leo M. Lowe, Ph.D., P.Phys.

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