Observation Of Heavy Cluster Emission From Radioactive U-230 Nuclei

Pa-230 was produced with the reaction Th-232 (p, 3n) 230Pa in the irradiation powder targets of ThO2 with 35 MeV proton beam. Sources of (230)pa -->(beta-) U-230 were prepared by radiochemical method. Using solid-state track registration detectors, two events of U-230 decay with heavy cluster emission have been observed. The preliminary branching ratio to alpha-decay comes out to be B = lambda(Ne)/lambda(alpha) = (1.3 +/- 0.8) x 10(-14).