What are Radio Active Elements ? List of Radio Active Elements
The elements that are formed naturally by nuclear fission or through the intentional synthesis in nuclear reactors or particle accelerators are called Radio Active Elements. All elements can have radioactive isotopes. If enough neutrons are added to an atom, it becomes unstable and decays. The increasing atomic number does not necessarily make an atom more unstable.
Natural radioisotopes may generate from nucleosynthesis in stars and supernova explosions. Primarily, the radioisotopes have half-lives until they get stable for all practical purposes. And once they decay, they form secondary radionuclides.
Here is a list of Radio-Active elements which are sorted by increasing atomic number:
| Element Name | Most StableIsotope | The half-Life of most stableisotope |
| Technetium | Tc-91 | 4.21*10^6 years |
| Promethium | Pm-145 | 17.4 years |
| Polonium | Po-209 | 102 years |
| Astatine | At-210 | 8.1 hours |
| Radon | Rn-222 | 3.82 days |
| Francium | Fr-223 | 22 minutes |
| Radium | Ra-226 | 1600 years |
| Actinium | Ac-227 | 21.77 years |
| Thorium | Th-229 | 7.54*10^4 years |
| Protactinium | Pa-231 | 3.28*10^4 years |
| Uranium | U-236 | 2.34*10^7 years |
| Neptunium | Np-237 | 2.14*10^6 years |
| Plutonium | Pu-244 | 8.00*10^7 years |
| Americium | Am-243 | 7370 years |
| Curium | Cm-247 | 1.56*10^7 years |
| Berkelium | Bk-247 | 1380 years |
| Californium | Cf-251 | 898 years |
| Einsteinium | Es-252 | 471.7 days |
| Fermium | Fm-257 | 100.5 days |
| Mendelevium | Md-258 | 51.5 days |
| Nobelium | No-259 | 58 minutes |
| Lawrencium | Lr-262 | 4 hours |
| Rutherfordium | Rf-265 | 13 hours |
| Dubnium | Db-268 | 32 hours |
| Seaborgium | Sg-271 | 2.4 minutes |
| Bohrium | Bh-267 | 17 seconds |
| Hassium | Hs-269 | 9.7 seconds |
| Meitnerium | Mt-276 | 0.72 seconds |
| Darmstadium | Ds-281 | 11.1 seconds |
| Roentgenium | Rg-281 | 26 seconds |
| Copernicum | Cn-285 | 29 seconds |
| Nihonium | Nh-284 | 0.48 seconds |
| Flerovium | Fl-289 | 2.65 seconds |
| Moscovium | Mc-289 | 87 milliseconds |
| Livermorium | Lv-293 | 61 milliseconds |
| Tennessine | Unknown | |
| Oganesson | Og-294 | 1.8 milliseconds |
Nuclear fission from nuclear power plants and thermonuclear weapons produces radioactive isotopes which are known as fission products. Radioactive elements are both anthropogenic and naturally occurring in origin.
Most of the Geosphere has these deposits. Naturally occurring radioactive materials majorly contain the members of the uranium and thorium decay chains and also including radium and radon. Human activities such as mining and milling of uranium ore, coal-burning, and water treatment are the reasons for these wastes which contain a high level of these radioactive materials. Anthropogenic radionuclides include transuranic elements like Pu, Np, Am, and fission products produced by nuclear reactions.
Radioactive elements contain atoms whose nuclei give off atomic radiations as part of a process of attaining stability.
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