In reply to Jones Beene's message of Wed, 9 Jun 2010 11:12:20 -0700: Hi, [snip] >The first relevant fact is that over two-thirds of natural nickel is the >isotope 58Ni, which has very high nuclear stability - but there is also a >~1% isotope 64Ni which is 6 a.m.u. or ~11% heavier, and which has been >studied in cosmology and medicine. From there on, "facts" fade and the >explanation offered is to a large part contingent on how well it explains >experimental results.
The difference in energy between Ni64 and Ni63 and a free neutron is 9.65 MeV. That's quite a lot by nuclear standards (usually more like 6-8 MeV). It isn't going to be easy to pry that neutron loose. (Note that Ni64 is an "even-even" nucleus, which means that is has both paired protons and paired neutrons, hence the stability.) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
