| Actinides | Half-life | Fission products | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 244Cm | 241Pu f | 250Cf | 243Cmf | 10–30 y | 137Cs | 90Sr | 85Kr | |
| 232U f | 238Pu | f is for fissile |
69–90 y | 151Sm nc➔ | ||||
| 4n | 249Cf f | 242Amf | 141–351 | No fission
product has half-life 102 to 2×105 years |
||||
| 241Am | 251Cf f | 431–898 | ||||||
| 240Pu | 229Th | 246Cm | 243Am | 5–7 ky | ||||
| 4n | 245Cmf | 250Cm | 239Pu f | 8–24 ky | ||||
| 233U f | 230Th | 231Pa | 32–160 | |||||
| 4n+1 | 234U | 4n+3 | 211–290 | 99Tc | 126Sn | 79Se | ||
| 248Cm | 242Pu | 340–373 | Long-lived fission products | |||||
| 237Np | 4n+2 | 1–2 my | 93Zr | 135Cs nc➔ | ||||
| 236U | 4n+1 | 247Cmf | 6–23 | 107Pd | 129I | |||
| 244Pu | 80 my | >7% | >5% | >1% | >.1% | |||
| 232Th | 238U | 235U f | 0.7–12by | fission product yield | ||||
Americium-243 is a radioactive isotope of americium having 95 electrons and protons and 148 neutrons and has a mass of 243.06138 g/mol.
It has a half-life of 7370 years, the longest lasting of all americium isotopes, however, it is still not found in nature. It is formed in the nuclear fuel cycle by neutron capture on plutonium-242 followed by beta decay. [1] Production increases exponentially with increasing burnup as a total of 5 neutron captures on uranium-238 are required.
It either decays by emitting an alpha particle (the decay energy is 5.27MeV)[2] to turn into neptunium-239, which then quickly decays to plutonium-239, or infrequently, by spontaneous fission. [3]
Americium-243 is a hazardous substance, because it can cause cancer. Neptunium-239, which is formed from Americium-243, emits dangerous gamma rays, making Americium-243 the most dangerous isotope of Americium. [4]
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