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Radioactive Decay
Nuclear transformation processes
Nuclear transformation processes are those inducing transitions from one nuclear state
to another. They can fall into two categories:
• those which occur
spontaneously
, referred to as
decays
and
• those which are initiated by
bombardment
with a particle from outside,
called
reactions
.
When a process occurs spontaneously
conservation of energy requires that the
final state be of lower energy than the initial state
and the difference in these
energies is liberated as kinetic energy of energetic particles being emitted.