Question

What happens to a radioisotope when it undergoes nuclear decay?

Answer 1

The radioisotope produces daughter atoms or another atoms of elements and also releases some characteristic radiation on nuclear decay.

Step-by-step explanation:

Nuclear decay is the process in which a radioactive isotope which is quite unstable undergoes fission reaction to produce daughter atoms or another atoms of elements and also releases some characteristic radiation. These can be alpha, beta or gamma particles.

For example, the nuclear decay reaction of Uranium-235 isotope is shown below in which it forms Barium and Krypton atoms with the release of neutrons.

`^(235)_(92)U+^(1)_(0)n\rightarrow ^(139)_(56)Ba+^(94)_(36)Kr+3^(1)_(0)n`

Answer 2

The radioisotope changes into another element/atom through the process of nuclear decay

Step-by-step explanation:

Nuclear decay is a process in which an unstable radioisotope changes into another element through the emission of characteristic radiation which are essentially fast moving energetic particles. This could be in the form of alpha, beta or gamma particles.

For example a Uranium, U-238 radioisotope gets converted to Thorium Th-234 nucleus through the release of alpha particles as shown below:

²³⁸U → ²³⁴Th + ⁴He