Radioactivity and nuclear fissionCan an unstable atom undergo both nuclear fission and radioactive decay?Other than the fact that that fission has to be initiated is there a difference between the final stability of the atoms?

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Carolyn Farmer · Accepted Answer

Yes. Uranium-235 for instance decays via   α emission, and is also, famously, fissile. The results of fission and decay are not the same but, by definition, you end up, at the end of a possibly-long chain, with stable nuclei both cases (but not the same ones)You could very easily have looked this up (the Wikipedia entry for &#039;Uranium&#039; would be a good starting point).

Noelle Wright · Accepted Answer

There is a decay process called Spontaneous Fission.U-235 for example, will undergo alpha decay about 99.99999999% of the time. But about 10^-9% of the time it will undergo spontaneous fission instead, where it breaks apart into smaller atoms. This happens without any outside forces causing it to do so.So there is a difference between spontaneous fission and fission by other means.Other fissile and unstable high mass atoms can also undergo spontaneous fission.Through alpha decay the mass of the daughter product is likely still very high and will undergo alpha decay several more times. After fission the daughter products are both much smaller and therefore no longer would go through alpha decay. It is more likely theyd go through beta decay once or twice with relatively short half lives before reaching a stable state.You can look up the U-235 decay chain. Through alpha decay it must go through a minimum of 11 decays to reach stability. Many of those have very long half lives. But if it fissions and breaks into cs-137 with a relatively small half life, then the cs-137 decays to ba-137 which is stable.

Radioactivity and nuclear fission Can an unstable atom undergo both nuclear

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