Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Radioactive isotopes are used in medicine for both treatment and diagnostic scans. The most common isotope used in diagnostic scans is Technetium-99m, used in approximately 85% of all nuclear medicine diagnostic scans worldwide. It is used for diagnoses involving a large range of body parts and diseases such as cancers and neurological problems ...
is about 662 keV. These gamma rays can be used, for example, in radiotherapy such as for the treatment of cancer, in food irradiation, or in industrial gauges or sensors. 137 Cs is not widely used for industrial radiography as other nuclides, such as cobalt-60 or iridium-192, offer higher radiation output for a given volume.
This is a list of radioactive nuclides (sometimes also called isotopes), ordered by half-life from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10 −19 and 10 −10 seconds.
The most commonly used radioisotope in PET, 18 F, is not produced in a nuclear reactor, but rather in a circular accelerator called a cyclotron. The cyclotron is used to accelerate protons to bombard the stable heavy isotope of oxygen 18 O. The 18 O constitutes about 0.20% of ordinary oxygen (mostly oxygen-16), from which it is extracted.
Only fissile isotopes of certain elements have the potential for use in nuclear weapons. For such use, the concentration of fissile isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239 in the element used must be sufficiently high. Uranium from natural sources is enriched by isotope separation, and plutonium is produced in a suitable nuclear reactor.
Radionuclides are often used in industrial radiography. They have the advantage that they do not need a supply of electricity to function, but it also means that they can't be turned off. The two most common radionuclides used in industrial radiography are Iridium-192 and Cobalt-60. But others are used in general industry as well. [10]
Federal and state nuclear regulatory agencies keep records of the radionuclides used. [4] As of 2003 the isotopes Antimony-124, argon-41, cobalt-60, iodine-131, iridium-192, lanthanum-140, manganese-56, scandium-46, sodium-24, silver-110m, technetium-99m, and xenon-133 were most commonly used by the oil and gas industry because they are easily ...
Tritium is a low-energy beta emitter commonly used as a radiotracer in research and in traser [check spelling] self-powered lightings.The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years. The electrons from beta emission from tritium are so low in energy (average decay energy 5.7 keV) that a Geiger counter cannot be used to detect the