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Re: Destroying radioactive atoms



On 29 Aug 1997 Brian Whatcott <inet@intellisys.net> was reminding us about
neutron activation analysis (things become radioactive when irradiated by
neitrons). It turns out, however, that fission products are already so
neutron-excessive (away from the valey of stability) that an avsorption
of an additional neutron usually results in a less stable product (shorter
half-lives). One has to be careful, however, and preliminary chemical
separation is likely to be necessary to make sure that the overall result
is positive (in terms of turning long-lived nuclei into more rapidly
decaying nuclei).
Ludwik Kowalski