Sodium24 analysis

Essay by 1600daveHigh School, 11th grade June 2005

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Don't have the actaul question sheet anymore, and there is images to go up aswell but im having trouble uploading any of my original essays.

1 & 2.

Sodium-24 is an isotope used in medicine and the mining industry, as it is a gamma emitter. It is used for studies of electrolytes within the body, and also to locate leaks in industrial pipelines and oil well studies.

3.

Half-life of Sodium-24 is 14.96 hours, and it takes a further 149.6 hours or 6.23 days to become 'safe,' as 10 half-lives is what is required for an unstable isotope to become 'safe'

4.

Sodium-24 is used to measure extracellular fluid by indicator dilution and also is used to locate leaks in industrial pipelines and oil well studies. It is injected into pipelines and oil wells, and then measured with scanners and radiation detectors for leaks, so that they can be fixed to prevent stock loss or some sort of disaster from a leak, for example a landslide, and to improve flow, and therefore profit too.

5.

Sodium-24 is an artificially made isotope. It is made at the Lucas Heights reactor, near Sydney, Australia, as well as at other reactors across the world. It is made by the neutron absorption method, where a stable isotope is placed in a nuclear reactor and bombarded with neutrons, until one is absorbed into the nucleus, creating an unstable isotope.

6. There are four main hazards when using sodium-24 -

Ionisation ability - is low because ionisation occurs when the decayed particles collide with an atom, knocking out an electron, making it positive. Because sodium-24 is a gamma emitter, the chance of a particle hitting an atom is small, because the particles that are decaying are so small.

Penetration ability - Sodium-24 particles are so...