Due to the alpha decay of thorium and uranium, monazite contains a significant amount of helium, which can be extracted by heating.
Mendelevium-256, the chemically most important isotope of mendelevium, decays through electron capture 90.7% of the time and alpha decay 9.9% of the time.
Most of these decay predominantly through alpha decay, but some undergo spontaneous fission.
A half-life of 0.89 ms was calculated: decays into by alpha decay.
Alpha decay typically occurs in the heaviest nuclides.
Lighter astatine isotopes have quite high energies of alpha decay, which become lower as the nuclei become heavier.
This activity was also observed from the alpha decay of flerovium-287.
In 1983, they repeated the experiment using a new technique: measurement of alpha decay from a decay product that had been separated out chemically.
