  Optical trapping of selected species of radioactive atoms has great potential
in precision measurements for testing fundamental physics such as EDM, PNC and
parity violating beta-decay asymmetry correlation coefficients. We report
trapping of 10^4 radioactive ^{82}Rb atoms (t_{1/2}=75 s) with a trap lifetime
of ~55 seconds in an optical dipole trap. Transfer efficiency from the
magneto-optical trap was ~14%. We further report the evidence of spontaneous
spin polarization of the atoms in optical dipole trap loading. This advancement
is an important step towards a new generation of precision J-beta correlations
measurements with polarized ^{82}Rb atoms.
