Heavy mass elements total half-lives for selected long-lived nuclides

In the past, many compilations and evaluations of half-lives have been made which have uncritically accepted authors' values and uncertainties. They have merely recommended weight-averaged reported results. This evaluation attempts to reanalyze each experiment in the literature including an estimate of the standard deviation utilizing, where possible, an estimate of the systematic error. This paper constitutes a preliminary step in the process of recommending values. The long-lived nuclides of heavy mass elements are of interest in determining geological ages using the Re-Os or the Lu-Hf dating methods, in supplying information on the p-process (proton capture) of nucleo-synthesis, in providing information on lepton number conservation and the rest mass for the electron neutrino from double ..beta.. decay processes and in the case of tantalum because it represents the first long-lived state which is actually an isomer. Experimental data on the half-lives of selected nuclides have been evaluated and recommended values and uncertainties are presented for the following nuclides: /sup 128/Te, /sup 130/Te, /sup 129/I, /sup 138/La, /sup 144,145/Nd, /sup 146,147,148/Sm, /sup 152/Gd, /sup 154/Dy, /sup 176/Lu, /sup 174/Hf, /sup 180/Ta, /sup 187/Re, /sup 186/Os, /sup 190/Pt, /sup 204,205/Pb and /sup 230,232/Th. It is shown that /sup 204/Pb, which was previously thought to be radioactive, is stable. For /sup 205/Pb, the L electron capture x-rays have been revised for the M and higher x-ray yields. The resulting half-life for /sup 205/Pb is 1.9 +- 0.3 x 10/sup 7/ years. /sup 146/Sm with a half-life of 1.03 +- 0.05 x 10/sup 8/ years is the longest-lived extinct natural nuclide. 21 tabs