It has been suggested that strontium-90 (generated by nuclear testing) deposited in the hot desert will undergo radioactive decay more rapidly because it will be exposed to much higher average temperatures. (a) Is this a reasonable suggestion? (b) Does the process of radioactive decay have an activation energy, like the Arrhenius behavior of many chemical reactions (Section 14.5\() ?\)

In order to determine if this suggestion is reasonable, we should understand the process of radioactive decay. The radioactive decay of an element is a process in which an unstable nucleus loses energy by emitting ionizing radiation, such as alpha, beta, or gamma particles. This process is a spontaneous nuclear reaction and does not depend on external factors such as temperature, pressure, or chemical bonding. Because radioactive decay obeys first-order kinetics, it only depends on the decay constant and the quantity of the element. So, suggesting that strontium-90 (generated by nuclear testing) deposited in the hot desert will undergo radioactivity decay more rapidly because it will be exposed to much higher average temperatures is not a reasonable suggestion since the rate of radioactive decay does not rely on external factors.

Activation energy is the minimum amount of energy required for a chemical reaction to occur. The Arrhenius behavior describes the dependence of the rate of a chemical reaction on temperature via the activation energy - as temperature increases, the reaction rate increases. However, radioactive decay is not a chemical reaction but a nuclear process. Thus, it does not have an activation energy and doesn't follow the Arrhenius behavior. The rate of radioactive decay is only dependent on the decay constant of the specific element and the amount of the substance, independent of external factors like temperature.