Rarest nucleus reluctant to decay
Tantalum-180m’s half-life is more than a million times universe’s age
![High Activity Disposal Experimental Site](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/093016_EC_tantulum_main.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
LONG WAIT Scientists searched for the decay of nature’s rarest type of atomic nucleus, tantalum-180m, at the High Activity Disposal Experimental Site, or HADES, laboratory (shown above) located 225 meters underground in Mol, Belgium.
Guillaume Lutter