
40 Nuclear Forensic Analysis
decay process, is small compared to the energy released in the nuclear transforma-
tion. Thus, the error associated with ignoring this effect is small.
Those
n
uclides
o
n
t
he
r
ight
s
ide
o
f
F
igure
2
.2
a
re
a
lso
u
nstable
r
elative
t
o
143
Nd.
D
ecay
ca
n
o
ccur
t
hrough
ca
pture
o
f
a
n
e
lectron
b
y
t
he
at
omic
n
ucleus
o
r
b
y
e
mission
o
f a positron. For example, consider the decay of
143
Eu by EC:
143
Eu =
143
Sm + Q
EC
.
The
143
Eu nuclide, with 63 protons, 80 neutrons, and 63 electrons and a mass excess
o
f
−
74.360
M
eV,
l
oses
a
n
e
lectron
f
rom
at
omic
s
pace,
c
onverting
a
p
roton
i
nto
a
n
eutron
a
nd
r
esulting
i
n
a
143
Sm nuclide containing