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Nuclide reference

Ni-59 — Nickel-59

The half-life of Ni-59 is 76,000 years. Main decay mode: β⁺ decay / electron capture to Co-59 (100%).

Identification

Element
Nickel (Ni)
Atomic number Z
28
Mass number A
59
State
Radioactive

Key quantities

Half-life
76,000 years
Specific activity
2.95e+9 Bq/g
Gamma constant Γ
—
A1 / A2 for transport (SSR-6, НП-053-16)
unlimited / unlimited
D-value (НП-067-24)
1,000 TBq

Decay modes

  • β⁺ decay / electron capture → Co-59 — 100 %

Main gamma lines

Energy, keVYield, %
6.93 · X-ray line19.76
6.914 · X-ray line10.11
7.652 · X-ray line2.409
7.646 · X-ray line1.227

Lines of the bare nuclide (ENDF/B-VIII.0), without daughter ingrowth.

Related calculators

DecayActivity ↔ massSource categoryDose rateA1/A2 and package type

Other isotopes of this element

Ni-63
Reference data vs computed valuesHalf-life, gamma lines and D-value are reference data (ENDF/B-VIII.0, НП-067-24).Gamma constant Γ is H*(10) at 1 m computed from ICRP-107 spectra (NIST µ_en/ρ, ICRP-74 Table A.21) including short-lived progeny in equilibrium (e.g. Cs-137/Ba-137m, Ra-226 series); specific activity uses molar mass M ≈ mass number A.K-series X-ray energies are from NIST SRD 128 (Deslattes et al., 2003): in ENDF/B-VIII.0 they are given to 1 % and shifted by up to 0.7 keV for heavy elements. L-series lines and all yields are ENDF/B-VIII.0.

Nickel-59 (Ni-59) — reference data

What is in the card

This card gathers the key data of radionuclide Ni-59 in one place: half-life, decay modes, main gamma lines, alpha and beta particle energies, gamma constant, specific activity and the D-value for source categorization. Decay and emission data are from ENDF/B-VIII.0; the D-value follows NP-067-24; the gamma constant is the ambient dose equivalent H*(10) at 1 m, computed from ICRP-107 spectra.

How to use the data

Half-life and specific activity let you recalculate the activity of a Ni-59 source to the delivery or disposal date — use the decay calculator. Gamma lines with yields identify the nuclide from a spectrum and pick the line for gamma spectrometry; the gamma constant Γ gives the dose rate at a distance, while the D-value and A1/A2 set the source category and the package type for transport.