Nuclear Stability

Topic Description

Upon completion of this module, you should be able to describe conditions for nuclear stability and write nuclear reactions for electron emission, positron emission, gamma-ray emission, and electron capture. Isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons (Z) but a different number of neutrons (N). There are about 3000 known nuclides, but only about 250 of these are stable. The rest of the nuclides are unstable and decompose emitting radiation forming new nuclides in the process.