穩定性同位素是天然存在的目前技術手段檢測不到放射性的一類同位素。與放射性元素示蹤技術相比，穩定性同位素技術無輻照傷害、安全、不受半衰期的影響，可適用于長時間的示蹤實驗，且其測試定量具有超高精度。自20世紀中葉特別是70年代以來穩定同位素技術被廣泛應用于核電工業、醫學、食品、農業、生態、地質等研究和生產領域。目前已發現的穩定同位素共274種，得到產業化生產并已廣泛應用的主要為氘（2H）、碳-13、氮-15、氧-18、氖-22、硼-10等少數幾種產品。 硼的穩定同位素在生物、醫學、地質等領域和實際生產中有著廣泛的應用。在核工業中,10B可用于制造中子計數管、反應堆的控制棒和熱中子屏蔽材料。在醫學領域，基于10B具有捕獲熱中子的能力，硼中子俘獲治療癌癥是一種新的放療方法。11B可應用在半導體行業，有11B作為摻雜劑可以使得硅離子布植緊密，從而生產高度集成、高密度的微型芯片。11B也可以作為鋼材的添加劑，這種鋼材用于制造反應器，可以使反應器的耐高溫、耐輻射性能得到大幅度提高。
Stable isotopes are naturally occurring isotopes that their radioactivity cannot be detected by current techniques. Compared with the tracer technique of radioactive element, stable isotope technique has no radiation damage, and it is not affected by half-life period, which can be applied to long time tracer experiment, and its quantitative test has high accuracy. Since the middle of the 20th century, especially since the 1970s, stable isotope technology has been widely used in the research and production fields of nuclear power industry, medicine, food, agriculture, ecology and geology. At present, 274 kinds of stable isotopes have been discovered, and a few products such as deuterium (2H), carbon-13, nitrogen-15, oxygen-18, neon-22 and boron-10 have been widely used in industrial production. The stable isotope of boron is widely used in biology, medicine, geology and other fields. In the nuclear industry, 10B can be used to produce neutron counters, reactor control rods, and thermal neutron shielding materials. In the medical field, boron neutron capture therapy method is a new radiotherapy method for cancer treatment based on the ability of B10 for capturing thermal neutrons. As a dopant, 11B can be applied in the semiconductor industry, which makes silicon ion layout closely, so that the highly integrated and high-density microchips can be produced. 11B can also be used as an additive to the steel used in the manufacture of reactors, which can greatly improve the resistance to high temperature and radiation.
