Heat production rates for the geologically important nuclides ^ { 26 } Al , ^ { 40 } K , ^ { 60 } Fe , ^ { 232 } Th , ^ { 235 } U , and ^ { 238 } U are calculated on the basis of recent data on atomic and nuclear properties .
The revised data differ by several per cent from some older values , but indicate that more recent analyses converge toward values with an accuracy sufficient for all common geoscience applications , although some possibilities for improvement still remain , especially in the case of ^ { 40 } K and with regard to the determination of half-lives .
A Python script is provided for calculating heat production ( https : //github.com/trg818/radheat ) .