- Europium-155
Europium-155 is a
radioisotope orEuropium andfission product with ahalflife of 4.76 years. It has a maximumdecay energy of 252KeV . In athermal reactor (almost all currentnuclear power plants ), it has a lowfission product yield , about half of one percent as much as the most abundant fission products.Eu-155's large
neutron capture cross section (about 3900 barns forthermal neutrons , 16000resonance integral ) means that most of even the small amount produced is destroyed in the course of thenuclear fuel 'sburnup . Yield, decay energy, and halflife are all far less thanCs-137 andSr-90 , so Eu-155 is not a significant contributor tonuclear waste .Some Eu-155 is also produced by successive neutron capture on Eu-153 (nonradioactive, 350 barns thermal, 1500 resonance integral, yield is about 5 times as great as Eu-155) andEu-154 (halflife 8.6 years, 1400 barns thermal, 1600 resonance integral, fission yield is extremely small because beta decay stops at Sm-154); however the differing cross sections mean that both Eu-155 and Eu-154 are destroyed faster than they are produced.Eu-154 is a prolific emitter of
gamma radiation . [http://www-nds.ipen.br/sgnucdat/b2.pdf]ee also
*
Isotopes of europium
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.