What costs $27 million per gram and can be used to treat brain cancer, analyze coal for its sulfur content, and detect explosives in luggage? The answer is californium-252, a radioactive isotope so rare that only 8 g of it have been made in the Western world since its discovery by Glenn Seaborg in 1950. The half-life of the isotope is 2.645 years—long enough for a useful service life and short enough to have a high radioactivity per unit mass. One microgram of the isotope releases 170 million neutrons per minute.

a. What is the value of k in the decay equation for this isotope?

b. What is the isotope’s mean life?

c. How long will it take 95% of a sample’s radioactive nuclei to disintegrate?