Decay Simulator: Tellurium-104
General data
| Element name | Tellurium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Te |
| Atomic number Z | 52 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Tellurium-104 (Te-104) |
| Neutron number N | 52 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 104 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Tellurium-104: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | < 18 ns |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Tellurium-104 < 18 ns
- Tin-100 1.18 s
- Indium-100 5.66 s · 83.0%
- Cadmium-100 49.1 s · 81.6%
- Silver-100 2.01 min · 81.6%
- Palladium-100 3.63 d · 81.6%
- Rhodium-100 20.5 h · 81.6%
- Ruthenium-100 stable · 81.6%
- Cadmium-99 17 s · 17.0%
- Silver-99 124 s · 18.3%
- Palladium-99 21.4 min · 18.3%
- Rhodium-99 16.1 d · 18.3%
- Ruthenium-99 stable · 18.3%
- Palladium-98 17.7 min · 0.036%
- Rhodium-98 8.74 min · 0.036%
- Ruthenium-98 stable · 0.036%
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