Though krypton is quite unreactive, it is reactive enough to form a few compounds. Krypton is not used in any alloys, and no allotropes exist. Kr-83 has medical uses in MRI technology. By monitoring its amounts in the atmosphere over countries like Pakistan and North Korea, researchers are able to determine where hidden nuclear facilities exist. In 2004, a study using Kr-81 revealed that some groundwater in the Sahara Desert had not seen the light of day for 1 million years! K-85 is produced during nuclear fission and has a half-life of 10.76 years. The radioactive isotope Kr-81 is used to date extremely old groundwater and ice (50,000-800,000 years). Approximately 30 isotopes of krypton exist overall, and some of them have relatively long half-lives, on the order of years. 78Kr is technically not stable but has the second-longest known half-life among all isotopes: 9.2×10 21 years. Krypton is unique because naturally-occurring krypton is actually composed of six essentially stable isotopes: 78Kr, 80Kr, 82Kr, 83Kr, 84Kr, and 86Kr.
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