Radioactive Decay Rates

• Relative stability of nuclei can be expressed in terms of the time required for half of the sample to decay

• Examples: time for 1 g to decay to .5 g

  • Co-60 5 yr
  • Cu-64 13 h
  • U-238 4.51 x 109 yr
  • U-235 7.1 x 108 yr

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