Notice it's easy to block alpha radiation (paper will do!
(Only a handful of nuclides with atomic numbers less than 83 emit an -particle.) The product of -decay is easy to predict if we assume that both mass and charge are conserved in nuclear reactions.For example, when U-238 (one of the radioactive isotopes of uranium) initially decays, it produces Th-234, which decays to Pa-234.The decay continues until, finally, after a total of 14 steps, Pb-206 is produced.The excess energy associated with this excited state is released when the nucleus emits a photon in the -ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.Most of the time, the -ray is emitted within 10Nuclides with atomic numbers of 90 or more undergo a form of radioactive decay known as spontaneous fission in which the parent nucleus splits into a pair of smaller nuclei.