Evidence for Heavy Ion Emission of ²³⁰U

Radioisotope of ²³⁰Pa was synthesized by proton irradiation of ThO₂ powder targets with thickness of about 2g/cm². Pure ²³⁰Pa was extracted and deep purified from thorium and fission products by the radiochemical method. Thin ²³⁰Pa→²³⁰U sources were prepared for measuring the cluster decay of ²³⁰U. Two cases of decay via heavy ion emission, which were most probably for the neon decays of ²³⁰U, were detected by using solid-state track registration detectors. The preliminary branching ratio relative to a-decay comes out to be ( 1.3 ±0.8 ) 10^-14.