one of the neutrons in carbon-14 decays to a proton and the carbon-14 (half-life of years) decays into the stable (non-radioactive) isotope nitrogen-14.

As usual with beta decay, almost all the decay energy is carried away by the beta particle and the neutrino. The emitted beta particles have a maximum energy of about 156 keV, while their weighted mean energy is 49 keV. These are relatively low energies; the maximum distance traveled is estimated to be 22 cm