What are used to write nuclear equations for radioactive decay?
energy symbols
special symbols
chemical symbols
nuclear symbols
Nuclear symbols are used to write nuclear equations for radioactive decay. 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. The reaction can be represented by this nuclear equation:.