Nuclide reference

U-230 — Uranium-230

The half-life of U-230 is 20.8 d. Main decay mode: α decay to Th-226 (100%).

Identification

Element
Uranium (U)
Atomic number Z
92
Mass number A
230
State
Radioactive

Key quantities

Half-life
20.8 d
Specific activity
1.01e+15 Bq/g
Gamma constant Γ
—
A1 / A2 for transport (SSR-6, НП-053-16)
30 TBq / 0.003 TBq
D-value (НП-067-24)
0.04 TBq

Decay modes

Main gamma lines

Energy, keVYield, %
16.1498 · X-ray line6
12.9599 · X-ray line4.914
111.12 (Th-226)3.293
324.31 (Ra-222)2.773
242.12 (Th-226)0.8669
72.20.6
131.02 (Th-226)0.2783
206.23 (Th-226)0.1892
154.230.125
609.31 (Rn-218)0.1241

Includes daughter nuclides in equilibrium: Th-226, Ra-222, Rn-218, Po-214 (yield per decay of U-230); the emitting nuclide is in brackets. Equilibrium is reached in about 3.6 h. Equilibrium with radon requires a sealed source.

Alpha and beta particles

RadiationEnergy, keVYield, %
α5,888.467.4
6,559 (Ra-222)97
7,129.2 (Rn-218)99.97
7,686.8 (Po-214)100.1

Related calculators

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.

Uranium-230 (U-230) — reference data

What is in the card

This card gathers the key data of radionuclide U-230 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 U-230 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.