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technetium-99

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Also known as Tc-99, 99Tc

Technetium-99 (99Tc) is an isotope of technetium that decays with a half-life of 211,000 years to stable ruthenium-99, emitting beta particles, but effectively no gamma rays. It is the most significant long-lived fission product of uranium fission, and the largest single contributor to the long-lived radioactivity of nuclear waste. Technetium-99 has a fission product yield of 6.0507% for thermal neutron fission of uranium-235.

Wikidata facts

Mass
98.906249678
Show 9 more facts
atomic number
43
neutron number
56
half-life
211100.0
spin quantum number
4.5
parity quantum number
1
canonical SMILES
[Tc]
chemical formula
Tc
mass excess
-87327.862
binding energy
852747.39
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Article

8 sections
Contents
  • Radiation
  • Role in nuclear waste
  • Releases
  • In the environment
  • Separation of technetium-99
  • Transmutation of technetium to stable ruthenium-100
  • See also
  • References

Technetium-99 (99Tc) is an isotope of technetium that decays with a half-life of 211,000 years to stable ruthenium-99, emitting beta particles, but effectively no gamma rays. It is the most significant long-lived fission product of uranium fission, and the largest single contributor to the long-lived radioactivity of nuclear waste. Technetium-99 has a fission product yield of 6.0507% for thermal neutron fission of uranium-235.

The metastable technetium-99m (99mTc) is a short-lived (half-life about 6 hours) nuclear isomer used in nuclear medicine, produced from molybdenum-99. It decays by isomeric transition to technetium-99, a desirable characteristic, since the very long half-life and type of decay of technetium-99 imposes little further radiation burden on the body.

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