Is radioactive decay a type of nuclear reaction?
1 Answer
May 31, 2015
Radioactive decay is the process through, which an element sheds off particles (alpha, beta negative and positive) and energy (gamma).
Whenever a particle is give off transmutation occurs - in gamma radiation (if unaccompanied by particle ejection) the nucleus just sheds extra energy.
All of these decays are nuclear based and so are nuclear reactions. Only exception that can be made is the gamma absorption/emission as that does not involve transmutation.
