Calcium⁴⁰ and argon⁴⁰ are both stable nuclei. The second reaction is followed immediately by a gamma ray emission from the argon⁴⁰. The one per cent of argon found in the earth’s atmosphere comes almost entirely from the second reaction. These radioactivities are also interesting because appreciable amounts of potassium⁴⁰ are always present in human tissue.
All nuclei at the heavy end of the periodic system are radioactive alpha emitters. Uranium, for example, has no stable isotopes; they all undergo alpha decay. But there is another mode of spontaneous decay of uranium, which is much less frequent than alpha decay but is of much greater practical importance. This is the fission process.
The fission process is just like alpha decay in that the nucleus breaks up into two fragments. The main difference between these processes is in the relative weights of the fragments. In the alpha decay of U²³⁸, for instance, one fragment has a weight of four and the other 234. In the fission process the fragments tend to be more nearly equal in weight. For example, one may weigh 90 and the other 148.[6] Other weight combinations are also possible.
The explanation of spontaneous fission is in essence the same as that of alpha decay. Spontaneous fission, however, is a less probable process because the two fragments are more strongly bound to each other by the nuclear forces than they are in alpha decay. More energy must be borrowed, and it must be borrowed for a longer term in order to penetrate the energy barrier.
The relative likelihoods of spontaneous fission and alpha decay can be appreciated from the following fact. In one hour in a gram of U²³⁸ there occur about 45 million alpha decays but only about 25 spontaneous fissions.
Once the energy barrier has been overcome, the energy released in alpha decay or spontaneous fission is proportional to the charges on the two fragments. For alpha decay, the product of the charges is 2 × 90 = 180; for spontaneous fission, this product will typically be about 40 × 52 = 2,080. Hence one might expect the fission energy release to be 10 to 15 times greater than the alpha energy release. As a matter of fact the fission energy release is even greater than this estimate indicates, being about 30 to 50 times greater than the alpha energy release. That so large an amount of energy is released, is a very important feature of the fission process from the point of view of practical utilization of atomic energy.
Being at the end of the periodic system, uranium requires a large ratio of neutrons to protons for its greatest stability. The fission fragments, however, lie in the middle of the system of elements, requiring a much smaller ratio of neutrons to protons for stability. This has two consequences.
One is that the fragments themselves may be expected to be unstable. They will undergo beta decay (electron emission) several times consecutively before a stable combination of neutrons and protons is reached. This radioactivity of the fission products constitutes a potential hazard in any practical application of fission atomic energy. In later chapters of this book we shall consider particularly the possible hazard from the fallout of radioactive fission products created in atomic explosions, and also the hazard associated with the operation and maintenance of atomic reactors.
The second consequence of the neutron excess is that neutrons may boil off from the fragments immediately after the fission process has occurred. This can happen because a lot of disorderly internal motion is generated by the fission process within the fragments, and these fragments do not have a particularly strong hold on their neutrons. The practical value of the released neutrons is something we shall discuss at length in a later chapter. For the present we mention only that these neutrons provide the mechanism whereby a chain reaction is made possible.
Spontaneous fission and alpha decay are responsible for the fact that elements with charge greater than 92 are not found in nature. There is little doubt that these elements were made in the beginning. But they have long since decayed.