Tin (50Sn) is the element with the greatest number of stable isotopes (ten; three of them are potentially radioactive but have not been observed to decay). This is probably related to the fact that 50 is a "magic number" of protons. In addition, twenty-nine unstable tin isotopes are known, including tin-100 (100Sn) (discovered in 1994) and tin-132 (132Sn), which are both "doubly magic". The longest-lived tin radioisotope is tin-126 (126Sn), with a half-life of 230,000 years. The other 28 radioisotopes have half-lives of less than a year.

List of isotopes

Tin-117m

Tin-117m is a radioisotope of tin. One of its uses is in a particulate suspension to treat canine synovitis (radiosynoviorthesis).

Tin-121m

Tin-121m (121mSn) is a radioisotope and nuclear isomer of tin with a half-life of 43.9 years. In a normal thermal reactor, it has a very low fission product yield; thus, this isotope is not a significant contributor to nuclear waste. Fast fission or fission of some heavier actinides will produce tin-121 at higher yields. For example, its yield from uranium-235 is 0.0007% per thermal fission and 0.002% per fast fission.

Tin-126

Tin-126 is a radioisotope of tin and one of the only seven long-lived fission products of uranium and plutonium. While tin-126's half-life of 230,000 years translates to a low specific activity of gamma radiation, its short-lived decay products, two isomers of antimony-126, emit 17 and 40 keV gamma radiation and a 3.67 MeV beta particle on their way to stable tellurium-126, making external exposure to tin-126 a potential concern. Tin-126 is in the middle of the mass range for fission products. Thermal reactors, which make up almost all current nuclear power plants, produce it at a very low yield (0.056% for 235U), since slow neutrons almost always fission 235U or 239Pu into unequal halves. Fast fission in a fast reactor or nuclear weapon, or fission of some heavy minor actinides such as californium, will produce it at higher yields.