The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 5 letter word BETA DECAY
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
B
E
T
A
D
E
C
A
Y
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.