Cobalt-60 produces gamma radiation, which is a type of electromagnetic radiation that is highly penetrating and can be used for various applications such as radiation therapy in cancer treatment and industrial radiography.
Radioactive cobalt-60 is used in cancer therapy through a process called radiation therapy. It emits high-energy gamma rays that can penetrate deep into the body to target and kill cancer cells. This helps shrink tumors and stop the growth of cancer cells.
The half life of Cobalt-60 is 5.27 years, so 32 years is almost exactly six half lives. (Which is probably why the question is put this way). Every half life the activity halves, so after six half lives it is reduced by a factor 26, which is 64. Therefore the activity after six half lives is 1/64 of the original level, or 1.56 percent.
Radio waves have the smallest frequency among the types of electromagnetic radiation. They have wavelengths ranging from thousands of meters to millimeters and are commonly used in communication technologies.
The quality factor of Co-60 gamma rays is 1. This means that they are considered low linear energy transfer (LET) radiation and have relatively low biological effectiveness compared to other types of radiation.
Nuclei in NMR spectroscopy primarily interact with radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation, typically in the range of 60-900 MHz for protons.
gamma
Cobalt-60 decays by beta particle emission to highly excited isomers of Nickel-60, as these isomers relax to the ground state of Nickel-60 highly energetic gamma rays are emitted.
Cobalt 60 is a very valuable radiation source for the treaments of many types of cancers.
It is sometimes called radiation therapy, x-ray therapy radiation treatment, radiotherapy, electron beam therapy, or irradiation
The only natural isotope of Cobalt is Cobalt-59.
The cobalt bomb is a theoretical type of nuclear weapon designed to produce massive amounts of radioactive cobalt-60. It has not been built or tested because of the extreme consequences it would have on the environment.
Gamma radiation destroy harmful microorganisms and insects.
A cobalt-60 from Delhi University, which was unused for 25 years, was sold to unsuspecting scrap dealers. They then dismantled it and due to the harmful radiation emmited by the cobalt-60 pencils, there were 5 people who were exposed to radiation in which one died.
The average life of this radionuclide is 5.27 years. The radiation is absorbed by the shieldof the head and not useful. What matters is radiation. This radiation has a mean energy of 1.25 MeV. The device itself consists of a radioactive source buried in a lead pipe that hasa side opening with a collimator adapted complex. When using the device, the radioactive source is moved laterally to coincide with the opening and there is where you passradiation. Security measures are designed to release radiation at any time while notcarrying out this treatment, then automatically, the radiation source is hidden in the lead pipe, for example, when you open the door of the room. Very schematically cobalt is as follows: The biggest problem with cobalt is its half-life, because radiation loses energy and becomes useless in a relatively short period of time. This does not make radioactive cobalt lose their ability to produce harmful radiation, but does so useless in therapy. The need for spare parts and expensive (having to handle radioactive materials) is the major drawback
Cobalt 60 is not used in medicine as tracer. Cobalt 60 is used to destroy cancer tumors by gamma irradiation. Uranium has a gamma radiation with an energy of about 185 keV, very small to be used for a medicinal irradiation.
If cobalt-60 enters the human body some of it can be excreted in feces but the remainder of it is absorbed usually into the liver, kidney or bones and can cause cancer from prolonged exposure to gamma radiation.
When cobalt-60 emits a gamma ray, it remains as cobalt-60. The emission of a gamma ray does not change the identity of the cobalt-60 isotope.