Tin-126

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Long-lived
fission products
Property: t½
Unit: (Ma)
Yield
(%)
Q *
(KeV)
βγ
*
99Tc .211 6.1385 294 β
126Sn .230 .1084 4050 βγ
79Se .295 .0447 151 β
93Zr 1.53 5.4575 91 βγ
135Cs 2.3  6.9110 269 β
107Pd 6.5  1.2499 33 β
129I 15.7  .8410 194 βγ

Tin-126 is a radioisotope of tin and one of only 7 long-lived fission products. While tin-126's halflife of 230,000 years translates to a low specific activity that limits its radioactive hazard, its shortlived decay product, antimony-126, emits high-energy gamma radiation, making external exposure to tin-126 a potential concern.

126Sn is in the middle of the mass range for fission products. Thermal reactors, which make up almost all current nuclear power plants, produce it at a very low yield (such as 0.0236% or 0.06%), since slow neutrons almost always fission 235U or 239Pu into unequal halves. Fast fission in a fast reactor or nuclear weapon, or fission of some heavy minor actinides like californium, will produce it at higher yields.


Chain yield, % per fission (JEFF 3.1[1])
Thermal Fast 14 MeV
232Th 0.0593 ± 0.0087 1.08 ± 0.17
233U 0.233 ± 0.032 0.325 ± 0.075 1.79 ± 0.24
235U 0.0594 ± 0.0052 0.098 ± 0.020 1.62 ± 0.49
238U 0.093 ± 0.020 1.38 ± 0.25
239Pu 0.314 ± 0.049 0.209 ± 0.044  ?
241Pu 0.362 ± 0.089 0.157 ± 0.031  ?

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