Editing Berkelium (section)

===Isotopes===
{{main|Isotopes of berkelium}}
Nineteen isotopes and six [[nuclear isomer]]s (excited states of an isotope) of berkelium have been characterized, with mass numbers ranging from 233 to 253 (except 235 and 237).<ref name="nubase">{{NUBASE2016}}</ref> All of them are radioactive. The longest [[half-life|half-lives]] are observed for <sup>247</sup>Bk (1,380&nbsp;years), <sup>248</sup>Bk (over&nbsp;300&nbsp;years), and <sup>249</sup>Bk (330&nbsp;days); the half-lives of the other isotopes range from microseconds to several days. The isotope which is the easiest to synthesize is berkelium-249. This emits mostly soft [[Beta decay|β-particles]] which are inconvenient for detection. Its [[alpha decay|alpha radiation]] is rather weak (1.45{{e|-3}}%) with respect to the β-radiation, but is sometimes used to detect this isotope. The second important berkelium isotope, berkelium-247, is an alpha-emitter, as are most actinide isotopes.<ref name="nubase" /><ref name="TBE">{{cite book|author = B. Myasoedov|title = Analytical chemistry of transplutonium elements| place =Moscow|publisher = Nauka|date = 1972|isbn = 978-0-470-62715-0|display-authors=etal}}</ref>