What are the radioisotope characteristics?

The isotope of radioisotope is unstable; it "changes." The nuclei of radioactive isotopes are unstable and emit radiation continuously and spontaneously until they become another stable isotope. This is called nuclear decay.

When radioactive isotopes undergo nuclear decay, they can emit alpha rays, beta rays, gamma rays, and electron capture, but they do not necessarily emit all of these rays at the same time. The rate of nuclear decay is not affected by temperature, pressure, electromagnetic field and other external conditions, nor by the state of the element, and only depends on the nuclide itself.

The rate at which a radioactive isotope decays is usually expressed as a "half-life". Half-life is the time required for the number of radioactive isotope atoms to decrease to half of their initial value. If P(phosphorus)-32 has a half-life of 14.3 days, that is to say, if there were 1 million P(phosphorus)-32 atoms, after 14.3 days, there are only 500,000 left.