The half-life of thorium-232 is about 14 billion years. Two other isotopes of thorium, which can be significant in the environment, are thorium-230 and thorium-228. Both decay by alpha emission, with ...

On our planet today, rapid decarbonization is necessary if we are to protect and safeguard the Earth’s future for generations to come. However, given that our societies rely on fossil-fuel based ...

There are a few reasons for this, though the most important is that thorium is not fissile, which means it cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction like isotopes of uranium (particularly uranium-235).

Thorium-232, the only naturally occurring isotope of thorium, is considered ‘fertile’ for fission. This means that it needs a driver, such as uranium or plutonium, to trigger and maintain a chain ...

Another significant area of research has focused on the decay of thorium isotopes, particularly the possibility of octupole deformed fragments. This study revealed that the presence of octupole ...

Another significant finding was the discovery of the new thorium isotope Th207, which exhibited an alpha decay energy of 8167 keV and a half-life of approximately 9.7 ms. This research indicated a ...

While thorium only releases alpha particles, in doing so, it becomes radium which will then, eventually, release a beta particle and becomes a different isotope of thorium which later decays to ...

(Courtesy: Steven Burrows/Ye group) Physicists in the US have taken an important step towards a practical nuclear clock by showing that the physical vapour deposition (PVD) of thorium-229 could reduce ...