Flexi Says: Radioactivity is the ability of an atom to emit or give off, charged particles and energy from its nucleus. The charged particles and energy are called by the general term radiation. Only unstable nuclei emit radiation. They are unstable because they have too much energy, too many protons, or an unstable ratio of protons to neutrons. For example, all elements with more than 83 protons—such as uranium, radium, and polonium—have unstable nuclei. They are called radioactive elements. The nuclei of these elements must lose protons to become more stable. When they do, they become different elements. Let’s consider an example. Uranium-238 undergoes alpha decay to become thorium-234. (The numbers following the chemical names refer to the number of protons plus neutrons.) In this reaction, uranium-238 loses two protons and two neutrons to become the element thorium-234. If you count the number of protons (subscripts) as well as the number of protons plus neutrons (superscripts), you’ll see that the total numbers are the same on both sides of the arrow. This means that the equation is balanced. The thorium-234 produced in this reaction is also unstable, so it will undergo radioactive decay as well.
