Nuclear Stability

Atomic Number	Name	Symbol
1	Hydrogen	H
2	Helium	He
3	Lithium	Li
4	Beryllium	Be
5	Boron	B
6	Carbon	C
7	Nitrogen	N
8	Oxygen	O

For the past several decades I have been confronted by the nature of Nuclear Stability and the pattern of proton-neutron ratios of various elemental isotopes. Just recently(2001) while digesting reports of radio-activity distribution in nature and evaluating data of radio-active decay of various waste products from the nuclear power industry I was prompted to take review of this topic again. I mention now that from the start I made reference to the Moon-Hecht Model which proved helpful early on but I abandoned midway in wrestling out a problem or two . The question at hand is really a very simple one. Why is a particular combination of protons and neutrons as an atomic nucleus more or less stable than another, and corollary, why is one particular type of decay favored by nature?
I consider some questions not to be answered sufficiently in the present day so here I elaborate concepts which I hope will explain phenomena in a more coherent way with intent that an increase in mankind's ability to effect nature for the good of all is to be had soon. I will start in a most basic level and work to the more complicated as we proceed. I will try to elaborate the blind alleys as well as the benchmarks.

Here are two of the charts we used on a previous page, we want to expand these charts to include all isobars to sixteen. We will build the chart in increments.

n =
p-2	p-1	p	p+1	p+2
	H 1		n
		H 2
	He 3		H 3
		He 4

n = p-2	n = p-1	n = p	n = p+1	n = p+2
	H 001 99.985% Stable		n
		H 002 0.015% Stable
	He 003 0.000137% Stable		H 003 12.33 yr
Li 004		He 004 99.999863% Stable		H 004

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1	H																	He
	0																	2
2	Li	Be											B	C	N	O	F	Ne
	4	5											6	6	7	8	10	10
3	Na	Mg											Al	Si	P	S	Cl	Ar
	12	12											14	14	16	16	18	22
4	K	Ca	Sc	Ti	V	Cr	Mn	Fe	Co	Ni	Cu	Zn	Ga	Ge	As	Se	Br	Kr
	20	20	24	26	28	28	30	30	32	31	35	35	39	41	42	45	45	48
5	Rb	Sr	Y	Zr	Nb	Mo	Tc	Ru	Rh	Pd	Ag	Cd	In	Sn	Sb	Te	I	Xe
	48	50	50	51	52	54	55	57	58	60	61	64	66	69	71	76	74	77
6	Cs	Ba	*	Hf	Ta	W	Re	Os	Ir	Pt	Au	Hg	Tl	Pb	Bi	Po	At	Rn
	78	81		106	108	110	111	114	115	117	118	121	123	125	126	125	125	136
7	Fr	Ra	**	Rf	Db	Sg	Bh	Hs	Mt	Uun	Uuu	Uub
	136	138		157	157	157	155	157	157	159	161	165
			*	La	Ce	Pr	Nd	Pm	Sm	Eu	Gd	Tb	Dy	Ho	Er	Tm	Yb	Lu
				82	82	82	84	84	88	89	93	94	97	98	99	100	103	104
			**	Ac	Th	Pa	U	Np	Pu	Am	Cm	Bk	Cf	Es	Fm	Md	No	Lr
				138	142	140	146	144	150	148	151	150	153	153	157	157	157	159

The above table is very useful as a quick reference but if you want real hard data for physics use this link and see the folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Now for the next chart we will first add Oxygen-16

n =
p-2	p-1	p	p+1	p+2
	H 1		n
		H 2
	He 3		H 3
		He 4
		O 16

Next