Theoretical studies of several prospective 2pemitters are performed in a three‐body core+p+pmodel. Lifetime dependencies on the decay energy are calculated for19Mg,30Ar,34Ca,45Fe,48Ni,54Zn,62Se and compared to the quasiclassical estimates. An observation of products from the in‐flight decay of 2pemitting nuclei is discussed as an important technique supplementing a standard implantation method for a broad range of lifetimes of prospective 2pemitters. The sensitivity of the model to various aspects of nuclear dynamics is demonstrated on the45Fe example. Momentum correlations for emitted protons are discussed with the emphasis on19Mg and45Fe. © 2003 American Institute of Physics