  The decay dynamical path is determined within the macroscopic-microscopic
model for the emission of 24Ne from 232U. The nuclear shape parametrization is
characterized five degrees of freedom. The single particle energies and the
nucleon wave functions are obtained within the superasymmetric Woods-Saxon two
center shell model. It turns out that the cluster decay follows a potential
magic valley, starting from the ground state of the parent and reaching a
configuration of two touching nuclei at scission. A small pocket in the
potential barrier is evidenced, as a result of large shell effects in the
nascent fragments. The half-life is computed by using several approaches for
the effective mass. It is shown that the inertia within by the gaussian overlap
approach gives the closest values to the experimental ones. Half-lives for
different cluster decays are predicted. The theoretical values are compared to
various phenomenological estimates.
