Isotopes of thorium

Thorium (90Th) has seven naturally occurring isotopes but none are stable. One isotope, 232Th, is relatively stable, with a half-life of 1.405×1010 years, considerably longer than the age of the Earth, and even slightly longer than the generally accepted age of the universe. This isotope makes up nearly all natural thorium, so thorium was considered to be mononuclidic. However, in 2013, IUPAC reclassified thorium as binuclidic, due to large amounts of 230Th in deep seawater. Thorium has a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition and thus a standard atomic weight can be given.No fission productshave a half-lifein the range of100–210 k years ...... nor beyond 15.7 M yearsLegend for superscript symbols₡  has thermal neutron capture cross section in the range of 8–50 barnsƒ  fissilem  metastable isomer№  primarily a naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM)þ  neutron poison (thermal neutron capture cross section greater than 3k barns)†  range 4–97 y: Medium-lived fission product‡  over 200,000 y: Long-lived fission product Thorium (90Th) has seven naturally occurring isotopes but none are stable. One isotope, 232Th, is relatively stable, with a half-life of 1.405×1010 years, considerably longer than the age of the Earth, and even slightly longer than the generally accepted age of the universe. This isotope makes up nearly all natural thorium, so thorium was considered to be mononuclidic. However, in 2013, IUPAC reclassified thorium as binuclidic, due to large amounts of 230Th in deep seawater. Thorium has a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition and thus a standard atomic weight can be given. Thirty-one radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable being 232Th, 230Th with a half-life of 75,380 years, 229Th with a half-life of 7,917 years, and 228Th with a half-life of 1.92 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than thirty days and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than ten minutes. One isotope, 229Th, has a nuclear isomer (or metastable state) with a remarkably low excitation energy, recently measured to be 7.6 ± 0.5 eV. The known isotopes of thorium range in mass number from 208 to 238. Thorium has been suggested for use in thorium-based nuclear power.