Decay Simulator: Sodium-34
General data
| Element name | Sodium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Na |
| Atomic number Z | 11 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Sodium-34 (Na-34) |
| Neutron number N | 23 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 34 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Sodium-34: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 5.5 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Sodium-34 5.5 ms
- Magnesium-32 80.4 ms · 50.0%
- Magnesium-34 44.9 ms · 35.0%
- Aluminium-34 53.73 ms · 27.6%
- Silicon-34 2.77 s · 20.7%
- Phosphorus-34 12.43 s · 20.7%
- Sulfur-34 stable · 20.7%
- Magnesium-33 90.2 ms · 15.0%
- Aluminium-32 31.7 ms · 49.4%
- Aluminium-33 41.5 ms · 20.2%
- Silicon-32 163 a · 50.7%
- Phosphorus-32 14.267 d · 50.7%
- Sulfur-32 stable · 50.7%
- Silicon-33 6.17 s · 25.4%
- Phosphorus-33 25.35 d · 25.4%
- Sulfur-33 stable · 25.4%
- Aluminium-31 0.64 s · 2.8%
- Silicon-31 157.24 min · 3.1%
- Phosphorus-31 stable · 3.1%
- Silicon-30 stable · 0.044%
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