Radioactive decay as explained by Wikipedia

[Naty1]

I am wondering what any experts think about these Wikipedia explanations of radioactive decay. (Wiki asks for help improving this article, so somebody must recognize some issues.)
Thanks.


under "EXPLANATION":

The rearrangement is hindered energetically, so that it does not occur immediately

Huh?? Does this mean anything??

Such a collapse (a decay event) requires a specific activation energy

What does "activation energy" assoicated with chemical reactions have to do with radioactive decay..a quantum tunneling effect...a statistical decay??

under "DECAY MODES IN TABLE FORM":

This is true because the decay energy must always carry mass with it, wherever it appears (see mass in special relativity) according to the formula E = mc2

Energy carrying mass?? I did not know energy could lug mass all over the place.
I'm sure the author means "decay energy equivalent to a mass" via E=mc²...

and

The decay energy is initially released as the energy of emitted photons plus the kinetic energy of massive emitted particles (that is, particles that have rest mass).

If these particles come to thermal equilibrium with their surroundings and photons are absorbed, then the decay energy is transformed to thermal energy, which retains its mass.

Huh? What does this mean??

 

[Drakkith]

The interplay of these forces produces a number of different phenomena in which energy may be released by rearrangement of particles in the nucleus or the change of one particle into others. The rearrangement is hindered energetically, so that it does not occur immediately. Random quantum vacuum fluctuations are theorized to promote relaxation to a lower energy state (the "decay") in a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling.

This simply describes the reason for Half Lives of material and why it's a probability. Quantum tunneling is probability based.

Such a collapse (a decay event) requires a specific activation energy. For a snow avalanche, this energy comes as a disturbance from outside the system, although such disturbances can be arbitrarily small. In the case of an excited atomic nucleus, the arbitrarily small disturbance comes from quantum vacuum fluctuations. A radioactive nucleus (or any excited system in quantum mechanics) is unstable, and can, thus, spontaneously stabilize to a less-excited system. The resulting transformation alters the structure of the nucleus and results in the emission of either a photon or a high-velocity particle that has mass (such as an electron, alpha particle, or other type).

This means that before the event can occur, there needs to be a small input to "get the ball rolling" so to speak. If you apply more energy to something it has a better chance of tunneling through a barrier in Quantum Tunneling.

Energy carrying mass?? I did not know energy could lug mass all over the place.
I'm sure the author means "decay energy equivalent to a mass" via E=mc2...

No, ALL energy is accompanied by mass. (Or momentum in the case of a photon)

The decay energy is initially released as the energy of emitted photons plus the kinetic energy of massive emitted particles (that is, particles that have rest mass).

If these particles come to thermal equilibrium with their surroundings and photons are absorbed, then the decay energy is transformed to thermal energy, which retains its mass.

This means that the energy from the decay is released as photons and as a moving particle. When they collide or are absorbed by the surrounding material that energy becomes thermal energy, AKA heat. The random motion of particles in a material IS heat.