AS Science for Public Understanding Student Sheets

Uses of radioactivity
Introduction
Radioactivity is dangerous but used carefully it also has many uses in modern life, in industry, medicine and in the
home. This activity tells you about a few of these uses and relates the uses to the properties of the isotopes.

If you have not already learned about radioactivity you should start by reading the textbook, pages 169 to 171 or
the section of this activity Essential Information on Radioactivity. Keep this with you as you work through the
activity.

Which isotope should they use?

Six applications of radioisotopes are given below. Choose which isotope should be used in each of these
applications from the isotopes listed in Figure 1.

You will have to consider:

• The type of radiation emitted. Do we need maximum damage to cells, in which case we might choose an !
emitter, but this may not penetrate far enough to reach the cells we want to kill.
• The half life. Is it important that the isotope remains active for a long time, or is it safer for a short half life
isotope to be used?
• Contamination or irradiation. The type of radiation and the half life requirements will be different depending
on whether we are using contamination or irradiation

Smoke alarm
A smoke alarm works by detecting ions formed by the ionising radiation emitted by the radioisotope. If there is
smoke in the air this absorbs the radiation and less ions are formed. This sets the alarm off.

Requirements:
• Radiation easily stopped by smoke in air (would !, " or # be best?)
• No risks of radiation reaching people in the room
• Half life of several years to maintain efficiency

Radiotherapy for thyroid cancer

The radioisotope is injected into the patient and travels specifically to the thyroid where the radiation kills the
cancer cells gradually over a few days.

Requirements:
• Radiation that is effective at killing cells close to the source but does not damage other parts of the body
(which types of radiation do not penetrate far?)
• Fairly short half life so that the patient is not radioactive for too long.
• Chemical substance that is naturally concentrated in the thyroid

Sterilisation of medical equipment

Medical equipment used to be sterilised by heating, but this harms some equipment. Ionising radiation is used to
kill microbes, sterilising the equipment without heating.

Requirements:
• Radiation that is able to penetrate through packaging and reach the inside of the equipment
• High doses can be used because no other living organisms, only the microbes to be killed, are exposed
• Long half life so that the source does not need replacement all the time

©The Nuffield Foundation, 2005 S10.5/Sources & effects of radiation/chapters 13&14/page 5

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Student Sheets AS Science for Public Understanding

Kidney scans
X-rays work well for images of bone but do not show soft tissue well. Certain compounds concentrate in the
kidneys and are excreted in the urine. If one of these compounds is made radioactive and injected into the body it
will travel to the kidneys. Pictures can then be taken with a gamma ray camera, showing details of the kidney
and how it is functioning.

Requirements:
• An isotope that binds to biological molecules.
• Gamma emission
• Short half life

Lung scans
Detailed images of the lungs using gamma rays can be taken if a radioactive gas is inhaled.

Requirements
• Gamma emission
• Short half life
• Gas

Pesticides in the environment

It is important to find out what happens to pesticides in the environment after they have been applied to a field.
Pesticides can be made containing very small amounts of a radioisotope and this isotope can later be detected in
the environment using very sensitive radiation detectors.

Requirements
• Long half life
• Low risk from radiation
• An element such as carbon, hydrogen or oxygen that can be included in the pesticide

Questions
1. Name two entries in the table that are isotopes of the same element.

2. If a sample of technetium-99 is emitting 1000 bequerels of radiation per second how much will it be emitting
after (a) 6 hours (b) 12 hours

3. Which would cause the least radiation damage if you swallowed it; Americium-241 or Americium-239?

4. Which would cause the least radiation damage if you stood 1 metre away from a sample; Americium-241 or
Americium-239?

5. Many applications of radioisotopes rely on the fact that ionising radiation kills living cells. Name two
applications above that do not depend on this property.

6. If a patient has a procedure using iodine-131 they are allowed very little contact with other people for a week or
more. If the procedure involves technetium-99 the restrictions apply for only a day.
(a) Explain the reason for the restrictions.
(b) Explain the reasons for the difference in time.

S10.5/Sources & effects of radiation/chapters 13&14/page 6 ©The Nuffield Foundation, 2005

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AS Science for Public Understanding Student Sheets

Isotope Most Half life Other information

important
emission

Americium -241 ! 430 years non-toxic in compound used

Americium-239 # 12 hours non-toxic in compound used

Carbon-14 " 5760 years low energy radiation

Cobalt-60 # 5.26 years

Hydrogen-3 " 12.3 years very low energy radiation

(known as tritium)

Iodine-131 " 8 days concentrates in the thyroid

Iodine-123 # 13 hours concentrates in the thyroid

Krypton-81 # 13 seconds a gas (produced by the decay of

rubidium-81)

Oxygen-19 " 27 seconds

Radon-222 ! 3.8 days a gas

Technetium-99 # 6 hours easily combined with biologically-active

substances
Figure 1 Properties of some radioisotopes

©The Nuffield Foundation, 2005 S10.5/Sources & effects of radiation/chapters 13&14/page 7

Copies may be made for use in schools and colleges