Re: Why are Tc isotopes all radioactive?

Date: Mon Oct 4 10:39:57 1999
Posted By: Ruth Weiner, Faculty, Transportation of Radioactive Materials, Chem and Radiological Risk Assessment, Sandia National Laboratories
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 938806575.Ch

Message:


Technetium does not occur naturally; it is produced artificially by a 
variety of nuclear reactions.  The most common method of production is by 
decay of Mo-99, which is itself produced by nuclear reaction.  The "reason" 
that all Tc isotopes are radioactive has to do with the structure of the 
nucleus, but I am not enough of a nuclear physicist to know why this 
happended at that particular point in the periodic table.

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