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.
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 | ? |
[edit] References
- ^ http://www-nds.iaea.org/sgnucdat/c1.htm Chain Fission Yields, IAEA