Tin-126

Tin-126 is a radioisotope and one of only 7 long-lived fission products. While tin-126's halflife of 230,000 years translates to a low specific activity that limits its radioactive hazard, its shortlived decay product, antimony-126, emits high-energy gamma radiation, making external exposure to tin-126 a potential concern.

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¹²⁶Sn is in the middle of the mass range for fission products. Thermal reactors, which make up almost all current nuclear power plants, produce it at a very low yield (such as 0.0236% or 0.06%), since slow neutrons almost always fission ²³⁵U or ²³⁹Pu into unequal halves. Fast fission in a fast reactor or nuclear weapon, or fission of some heavy minor actinides like californium, will produce it at higher yields.

See also

• ANL factsheet