mnmclockman Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 I realize this is a very basic question, but I am a layman, and would appreciate a solution to my idle curiosity. Question occurred to me in the wake of the London spy incident. Are there any elements (natural or man-made) which exist ONLY in radioactive isotope forms, that is, have no non-radioactive form? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 every element above lead is radioactive in all isotopes discovered. so, quite a few to answer your question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT2095 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 as above with the exception of element 43 (Technetium) that exists as radioactive only. also it`s all elements after Bismuth, not Lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Its chemistry theres always exceptions to the rule. BTW bismuth is radioactive in all isotopes, it just happens to have a half life several thousand million times longer than the age of the universe. source: http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/7/4/16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT2095 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 I hardly think that Qualifies! when you consider Many other elements classed as Non-Radioactive have much shorter half lives, such as Carbon or Nitrogen etc... lets not play silly games and confuse the guy eh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnmclockman Posted December 2, 2006 Author Share Posted December 2, 2006 Thank you all very much for your clarifications and tolerance of lack of knowledge in this area. By the way, "the guy" (me) is ALREADY pretty confused, so don't worry about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YT2095 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Welcome to the Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Unstable is still unstable, though. There are no stable isotopes of Bismuth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weknowthewor Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 I have following link for stable isotope of Bismuth : http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-81026/nitrogen-group-element Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 weknowthewor, thats the isotope YT mentioned, it has since been proven to be radioactive and hence unstable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 from http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/ Bi-209 been known as stable nuclide. But, alpha decay of Bi-209 with a half time of 2*10^19 years was found, recently. Reference : PIERRE DE MARCILLAC, NOEL CORON, GERARD DAMBIER, JACQUES LEBLANC & JEAN-PIERRE MOALIC, " Experimental detection of a-particles from the radioactive decay of natural bismuth," Nature 422, 876-878 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01541 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 thanks swansont, i already had a link to it further up the page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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