Accelerated Radioactive Decay by Dr. Jay L. Wile Qualifications • • • • •

Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry University Professor 1990-1995 NSF-sponsored scientist with >$200,000 in research grants Published over 30 articles in nationally recognized peer reviewed journals Currently writes science curriculum for homeschoolers Radioactive Decay

Radioactive atoms are like teenage girls. They don’t like themselves, and want to become something else. They do this by emitting a particle from the nucleus. This changes the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, changing the atom into a completely different atom. The rate of radioactive decay is expressed in half life. Some radioisotopes have short half lives, others have long half lives. Carbon-14’s half life is 5,730 years. If it were not renewed, all carbon-14 would decay away in under 100,000 years. It is renewed by interaction of cosmic rays with the atmosphere. At least 11 radioactive isotopes (like lead-205) have half lives between 1 million years and 80 million years but cannot be found anywhere in the solar system unless they are made in the lab. This is evidence that the earth is at least several hundred million years old. This reasoning makes a BIG assumption: Half -lives are CONSTANT Several lines of evidence indicate this is NOT true:
Reifenschweiler showed the half life of tritium (a radioactive isotope of hydrogen) varies by as much as 40% with changing temperature when exposed to titanium. [Reifenschweiler, O., “Reduced radioactivity of tritium in small titanium particles,” Phys. Lett. A 184:149-153, 1994.]
Bosh and others showed that in a fully-ionized state, the beta decay rates of heavy isotopes can be accelerated by a factor of a billion. [F. Bosch, et. al., "Observation of Bound-State beta- Decay of Fully Ionized Re-187: Re-187 Os-187 Cosmochronometry," Phys. Rev. Lett. 77:5190-5193, 1996] Dr. Jay L. Wile “Accelerated Radioactive Decay” p. 1

Helium Trapped in Zircons
One mode of radioactive decay is alpha decay. When this happens, a nucleus ejects an alpha particle, which is a helium nucleus.
This helium nucleus begins to speed away from the emitting nucleus, but it can get trapped in surrounding material.
Over time, it should DIFFUSE out of the material
Zircons from a borehole in Fenton Hills, New Mexico, contained large amounts of helium. This was surprising, as helium should diffuse out of zircon fairly quickly.
If the radioactive decay that produced the helium was as slow as expected from the half lives of the isotopes present, there should not be much buildup
The researchers looked through the literature and were surprised to find that although it was generally assumed that helium diffuses quickly through zircon, the actual rate had never been measured. The researchers set up two scenarios:  Assuming the rocks were as old as standard geology claims (>1.5 billion years old) and radioactive half lives are constant, they predicted how quickly helium must diffuse out of zircon to get the observed buildup.  Assuming the rocks were only 6,000 years old and that there was an early “burst” of radioactive decay that produced more than “500 million years” worth of alpha decay in a few days, they predicted how quickly helium must diffuse out of zircon to get the observed buildup. The predictions were different by a factor of 100,000! Two years later, the diffusion rates were measured, and the data lined up perfectly with the young-earth prediction! [D. Russell Humphreys, “Young Helium Diffusion Age of Zircons Supports Accelerated Nuclear Decay,” RATE II: Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth: Results of a YoungEarth Creationist Research Initiative, (Volume II), L. Vardiman et. al., eds., San Diego, CA: Institute for Creation Research and the Creation Research Society, pp. 25-100 2005 Available at http://www.icr.org/article/young-helium-diffusion-age-zircons/] Dr. Jay L. Wile “Accelerated Radioactive Decay” p. 2

Beta Decay Rates Are Influenced by the Sun

This has been seen at:  Brookhaven National Lab  Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (a German lab)  The Ohio State Research Reactor Many researchers are skeptical, however, saying it might have something to do with the detectors. The Ohio State Group Seems to Have Ruled Out Detector Artifacts

[Jere H. Jenkins, et. al.,“Additional experimental evidence for a solar influence on nuclear decay rates,” Astroparticle Physics 37:81-88, 2012] Dr. Jay L. Wile “Accelerated Radioactive Decay” p. 3

This Won’t Directly Affect the Radiometric Age of the Earth…BUT… It indicates at least two things:  We really don’t understand radioactivity the way we thought we did!  Radioactive half-lives are not nearly as robust as we once thought. If accelerated radioactive decay is real, there is a big problem: The daughter product and emitted particle have less mass than the radioactive isotope, so the process releases heat according to E = mc2. According to Dr. Andrew Snelling: In current granitic plutons, radioactive decay produces 10-9 Joules/kilogram every second. Granite has a specific heat of 700 Joules/(kg⋅K) 500 million years worth of decay would produce a temperature of: 1.6x1016 sec × 10-9 Joules/kg/sec ÷ 700 Joules/(kg⋅K) = 22,400 K [Andrew A. Snelling, “Radiohalos in Granites: Evidence for Accelerated Nuclear Decay,” RATE II: Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, (Volume II), L. Vardiman et. al., eds., San Diego, CA: Institute for Creation Research and the Creation Research Society, pp. 101-207 2005 Available at http://www.icr.org/article/radiohalos-granites-evidence-for-accelerated/] But Does It Have To Be So Fast? What if the acceleration were more “laid back,” at perhaps “only” a few million times what it is today? If, prior to the Flood, radioactive decay on earth was 3 million times faster than today: 1,500 years x 3,000,000 = 4.5 billion years’ worth of radioactive decay would have occurred. Using Snelling’s Numbers: Radioactive decay in granitic plutons would make: 10-9 Joules/kg/sec × 3,000,000 = 3 x 10-3 Joules/kg/sec In a year, this would make: 31,557,600 sec × 3 x 10-3 Joules/kg/sec = 94,673 Joules/kg

Dr. Jay L. Wile “Accelerated Radioactive Decay” p. 4

The Resulting Rise in Temperature Over an Entire Year: 94,673 Joules/kg ÷ 700 Joules/(kg⋅K) = 135 K I see no problem with that kind of temperature rise over the course of an entire year! One Other Issue The human body is naturally radioactive. Estimates indicate that we receive 3.7x10-4 Sv of radiation every year from the K-40 in our body. A 3-million-fold increase would result in 1,110 Sv, which is more than 100x a fatal dose This assumes the amount of K-40 in the body has always been the same. Increased radioactive decay would produce a lot of nuclear reactions, especially in the core and mantle. It’s possible that not much K-40 existed on the surface of the earth before the fountains of the deep were opened. What I Think Creationists Should Be Looking Into 1. A pre-Flood condition that resulted in radioactive decay on the order of a few million times faster than what we see today. 2. Evidence for how this radioactive decay could have produced a higher abundance of other radioactive isotopes, like K-40.

Dr. Jay L. Wile “Accelerated Radioactive Decay” p. 5