Decay Simulator: Lawrencium-258
General data
| Element name | Lawrencium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Lr |
| Atomic number Z | 103 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Lawrencium-258 (Lr-258) |
| Neutron number N | 155 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 258 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Lawrencium-258: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 3.86 s |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Lawrencium-258 3.86 s
- Mendelevium-254 10 min · 97.4%
- Fermium-254 3.240 h · 97.4%
- Californium-250 13.08 a · 97.4%
- Curium-246 4760 a · 97.4%
- Plutonium-242 3.750×10⁵ a · 97.4%
- Uranium-238 4.463×10⁹ a · 97.4%
- Thorium-234 24.107 d · 97.4%
- Protactinium-234m 1.159 min · 97.4%
- Nobelium-258 1.23 ms · 2.6%
- Protactinium-234 6.671 h · 0.16%
- Uranium-234 2.455×10⁵ a · 97.4%
- Thorium-230 75400 a · 97.4%
- Radium-226 1600 a · 97.4%
- Radon-222 3.82146 d · 97.4%
- Polonium-218 3.097 min · 97.4%
- Lead-214 27.06 min · 97.4%
- Astatine-218 1.28 s · 0.021%
- Bismuth-214 19.71 min · 97.4%
- Thallium-210 1.30 min · 0.02%
- Polonium-214 163.48 μs · 97.4%
- Lead-210 22.20 a · 97.4%
- Bismuth-210 5.012 d · 97.4%
- Polonium-210 138.378 d · 97.4%
- Lead-206 stable · 97.4%
Rare branches (below 0.01%)
Rare branches are transformations that occur in fewer than 0.01% of decays, e.g. double beta decay or cluster emission. The nuclides they produce are practically absent from a sample, so they are hidden by default to keep the main path clear. In this series: branches - 8, nuclides - 12.
- Plutonium-238 87.7 a · 2.1×10⁻¹⁰%
- Radon-218 33.75 ms · 1.1×10⁻⁵%
- Mercury-206 8.32 min · 1.9×10⁻⁶%
- Thallium-206 4.202 min · 1.3×10⁻⁴%
- Lead-209 3.235 h · 1.4×10⁻⁶%
- Bismuth-209 2.01×10¹⁹ a · 1.4×10⁻⁶%
- Thallium-205 stable · 1.4×10⁻⁶%
- Lead-212 10.628 h · 2.5×10⁻⁹%
- Bismuth-212 60.55 min · 2.5×10⁻⁹%
- Polonium-212 295.0 ns · 1.6×10⁻⁹%
- Thallium-208 3.053 min · 9.1×10⁻¹⁰%
- Lead-208 stable · 2.5×10⁻⁹%
How to read the simulation
Grid: each pixel is one atom of the starting isotope. When an atom decays, the pixel takes the colour of the decay product - in decay series mode the product can decay further. The moment each atom decays is random, but the probability follows from the half-life, so after one T½ about half of the atoms remain, after two - about a quarter.
Chart N(t): what percentage of the sample atoms each nuclide makes up at a given moment. The line of the starting isotope falls (by half after each T½), the lines of stable products rise, and those of short-lived ones first rise, then fall.
Chart A(t): activity, i.e. the number of decays per second (becquerel, Bq). It depends on the number of atoms and on how fast they decay: for the same number of atoms, the shorter the T½, the higher the activity.
Simulation time runs faster (or slower) than real time - the time scale slider sets the multiplier. This way you can watch the decay of isotopes that live from fractions of a second to billions of years.
Well-known isotopes
- H-3 - Tritium - glowing watch hands, nuclear fusion fuel.
- C-14 - Radiocarbon dating.
- K-40 - Natural radioactivity - in bananas and in our bodies.
- Co-60 - Radiotherapy and radiation sterilization.
- I-131 - Thyroid treatment; Chernobyl fallout.
- Cs-137 - Long-lasting contamination after Chernobyl and Fukushima.
- Rn-222 - Radon in basements and mines.
- Ra-226 - The longest-lived isotope of radium - the element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898.
- U-235 - Nuclear power plant fuel; start of the actinium series.
- U-238 - Age of the Earth; start of the uranium series.
- Pu-238 - Power source for space probes (Voyager, Curiosity rover).
- Am-241 - Ionization smoke detectors.
Data sources
- NNDC Wallet Cards 2023 - Data as of 15 October 2024 - licence: Public domain