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What are the ways in which radioactive isotopes with short half-lives can be more dangerous than isotopes with long half-lives?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
An isotope with a short half life is not necessarily more dangerous than one with a longer half life. For example, we can compare 99mTc, with a half life of about 6 hours, with 228Rn, with a half life of about 6 years.
99mTc decays, emitting a low energy gamma ray, to produce 99Tc. This is also radioactive, and emits low energy beta particles, but its half life is about 211,000 years, and its product is not radioactive. 99mTc is a synthetic isotope used for a variety of medical diagnostic purposes.
228Rn is the radon gas many people have in their basements. Since it is a gas, it can decay in a person's lungs, producing a chain of 9 radioactive isotopes, each decaying to produce the next in turn, and each of elements normally found as solids, so they probably remain in the lungs. The longest lived of these isotopes has a half life of less than two years, and the second longest lived has a half life of less than four days. So if radon decays in a person's lungs, the remainder of the decay chain will probably happen in that person's lungs during that person's lifetime.
Clearly 99mTc, with a half life of 6 hours, is much less dangerous than 228Rn, with a half life of 6 years.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoProvided all other considerations are equal, a shorter half life would be more dangerous as the time required to achieve a lethal dose would also be shorter.
Usually, however, other considerations are not equal. An isotope with a very short half life can be less dangerous than one with a long half life if it emits radiation of low energy and high charge and thus has very limited penetration.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoIf a radioactive isotope has a short half-life, it decays faster than one with a longer half-life. This means that it emits much more radiation than the other, therefore it is much more dangerous to be around, due to the negative effects of radiation in the human body.
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoSuch radioactive isotopes stay around for a long time. On the other hand, the amount of radiation they emit is quite small. The most dangerous isotopes are probably those with a medium half-life - say, a few hundred or thousand years. They stay around for a long time, and emit a significant amount of radiation.
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Radioactive tracers are short-lived?
rays
Why is fuel when it is removed from the reactor left to cool before being handled further?
They call it "cooling" but it is not thermal cooling it is radiological "cooling" by decay of highly radioactive short half life isotopes. This reduces the radioactivity of the spent fuel and makes it easier to handle and process.
What is one negative impact that using nuclear energy is?
nuclear waste pollutes the environment.and if we use radioactive elements like uranium to generate nuclear energy then some waste will also get generated as the by product of the reaction and these waste are highly radioactive,dangerous to us and the environment and the last but not the least the radioactive waste will remain on earth for thousands of year
What type of dating involves the use of radioactive elements and half-lives?
Radioactive decay may be used in carbon dating, testing for the amounts of a radioactive carbon isotope (C14) in the remains of some organism. C14 obviously only works on organic material which was once alive, such as wood or bone. Because C14 has a very short half life, less than 6000 years, it does not work on material much over 60,000 years (about ten half lives). Potassium/Argon is another useful set of isotopes that can yield the ages of rocks and inorganic matter far older--many millions of years old.
What is the fastest decaying element?
Many elements decay fast. All the elements after 92 are man made and decay, and all the ones over 104 decay rapidly, some with a half-life in the millionths of a second. Element 118, ununoctium, has a half-life of 0.89 mili-seconds.
Could there be a more elements that are unknown in the periodic table?
sure, but all will be radioactive with short halflives.
Is astatine odorless?
All the isotopes of astatine are radioactive and has very short half lives; consequently is a dangerous element.
What three deuterium of hydrogen?
Your question makes no sense.ordinary hydrogen has 1 proton and no neutronsdeuterium has 1 proton and 1 neutrontritium has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, it is radioactive with a halflife of about 12 yearsThere are more isotopes of hydrogen with more neutrons, but they are radioactive and have such short halflives that they are nearly undetectable.
Would radioactive waste still remain dangerous after millions of years?
No. Short-lived isotopes will disappear by then; some long-lived isotopes may survive, but they will have a low level of radiation.
Does silicon undergo radioactive decay?
The 3 isotopes that make up all naturally occurring silicon (28, 29, 30) on earth are all stable and thus do not undergo radioactive decay. But other silicon isotopes that are lighter or heavier can be produced by particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, nuclear explosions, or rarely cosmic rays do undergo radioactive decay via either -Beta, +Beta, or Gamma emission depending on isotope.Silicon does exist in space near very active stars, supernovas, etc. in the form of isotopes that undergo radioactive decay.The longest lived silicon isotope (32) that will undergo radioactive decay, has a halflife of roughly 700 years and thus will effectively completely decay to stable sulfur-32 in less than 4000 years. All other silicon isotopes that undergo radioactive decay have halflives so short that they finish decaying to stable isotopes of other elements in much less than a single day.
Why radioactive isotopes are a curse for the society?
they are rather expensive and must be used carefully and in short period of time
How do radioisotopes of an element differ feom other isotopes?
Radioisotopes are "radioactive isotopes"; they are not stable. Radioactive atoms will decay, or break apart into other atoms, by emitting an electron, or a neutron or a positron or an alpha particle (2 protons and two neutrons). The rate at which this happens is measured by the "half-life"; after one half-life, half of the atoms will have decayed. After another half-life, half of the remaining atoms will have decayed. Atoms with short half-lives are highly radioactive, and can be fairly dangerous. Atoms with long half-lives are only slightly radioactive, and aren't all that dangerous.
Can all radioactive isotopes be used in radiometric dating?
No, not all radioactive isotopes be used in radiometric dating. Some have very very short half lives and would entirely disappear before any useful period of time passed.
Is astatine bad?
As a radioactive element with a short half life astatine is dangerous.
What are Demerits of nuclear energy?
The byproducts of nuclear fission consist of short and long half life radioactive isotopes. In the short term the short half life isotopes are the most dangerous, as they emit the most radiation per unit of time. However, many short lived isotopes decay within weeks or months, and are no longer a problem. The real problem is the long lived isotopes. Some of these have half lifes of many thousands of years, and so a secure long term storage is required. The major issue is that it is difficult to guarantee that a storage site will not leak or corrode, and the potential for radioactive isotopes to be released in to the atmosphere means that it a serious issue. Otherwise nuclear energy is a relatively safe, clean source of energy, and it is very likely that the deaths from global warming from fossil fuel use will far exceed deaths from nuclear accidents.
What problems associated with the use of radioactive isotopes?
The hazards of radioactive materials are basically three:radiation burns and hair loss from intense radiationcancer from long term low level exposure to radiation or from intense, short-term exposurepotential for genetic damage - demonstrated in test animals but not seen in humans such as survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Should Radioactive isotopes used for medical purpose have long lives?
Radioactive isotopes used for medical purpose should not have long lives. The imaging cameras need to pick up the particles from the decay of the radioactive nuclei, and having a lot within an hour or two means a short half-life.
