decay chain

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decay chain

n.
A sequence of radioactive decay processes in which the decay of one element creates a new element that may itself be radioactive, and continuing until the sequence ends with stable, nonradioactive atoms.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive
The [sup.223]Ra massic activity was determined by live-timed anticoincidence counting (LTAC) of the entire [sup.223]Ra decay chain, using a method that was previously applied at NIST to the [sup.229]Th decay chain [16].
In total, the decay chain bridges 19 isotopes and culminates in a stable lead-206 atom.
Which of the following is the correct uranium decay chain:
As it can be seen in the radon decay chain, number of alpha particles emitted in this chain is high and given that alpha particle considered as one of the most dangerous particles resulted from decays so this gas can be considered as one of the dangerous radioactive gases.
The events in the 3.5 MeV to 7.5 MeV energy region are expected to come from a emitting isotopes in the [sup.226]Ra decay chain, which can be broken at [sup.210]Pb and at [sup.210]Po due to their long half-lives of 22.3 yr and 138.4 days, respectively.
This daughter isotope can decay into another radioisotope, or the daughter isotope, that will continue the radioactive decay chain or decay into a stable element that ends the chain.
As a result of the discrepancy between powder-XRF assays and gamma logging, samples were provided to ANSTO (Sydney) to determine whether uranium at Ongolo is in equilibrium with its radioactive decay chain progeny and/or if thorium was adversely affecting the gamma logging, resulting in artificially higher eU3O8 values.
Whereas the first isotope emits only one alpha particle during its decay, the latter has a decay chain with four alpha particles and could be much more efficient, at least when its full potential can be exploited.
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