Radioisotopes

NUR SAIDATUL QADAR BT. SHAMSURI 507 / GENEROUS 11368

Topic
How to produce Radioisotopes?
Radioisotopes as traces in industry Radioisotopes as traces in agriculture Radioisotopes as traces in medical Disposal of radioactive waste

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Many of the chemical elements have a number of isotopes. The isotopes of an element have the same number of protons in their atoms (atomic number) but different masses due to different numbers of neutrons. In an atom in the neutral state, the number of external electrons also equals the atomic number. These electrons determine the chemistry of the atom. The atomic mass is the sum of the protons and neutrons. There are 82 stable elements and about 275 stable isotopes of these elements. When a combination of neutrons and protons, which does not already exist in nature, is produced artificially, the atom will be unstable and is called a radioactive isotope or radioisotope. There are also a number of unstable natural isotopes arising from the decay of primordial uranium and thorium. Overall there are some 1800 radioisotopes. At present there are up to 200 radioisotopes used on a regular basis, and most must be produced artificially. Radioisotopes can be manufactured in several ways. The most common is by neutron activation in a nuclear reactor. This involves the capture of a neutron by the nucleus of an atom resulting in an excess of neutrons (neutron rich). Some radioisotopes are manufactured in a cyclotron in which protons are introduced to the nucleus resulting in a deficiency of neutrons (proton rich). The nucleus of a radioisotope usually becomes stable by emitting an alpha and/or beta particle (or positron). These particles may be accompanied by the emission of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation known as gamma rays. This process is known as radioactive decay. Radioactive products which are used in medicine are referred to as radiopharmaceuticals.

There are many different uses to which radioisotopes are put in industry. These include radiography, gamma scanning of process equipment, use of radiotracers to study sediment transport at ports and harbours, flow measurements, hydrology and water resource management. The isotope related services like sediment transportation, gamma scanning leakage detection and others have led to considerable monetary savings to the nation. By -ray photography we can find out wearing of cutting tools and lathes and can locate internal cracks in stones. We can check any non-uniformity in the thickness of a sheet by or -absorption measurements. The sheet is made to run continuously between a radioisotope (emitting or -rays) and a counter. A change in the counting rate indicates a variation in the thickness of the sheet. The output from the counter may be used to correct the machinery, which is rolling the sheet as soon as a variation is detected, and thus the thickness is automatically kept constant. This method is used as a thickness control in the manufacture of paper, plastic, metal sheet, etc. The same method can be used to check sealed cigarette packets whether they are full or if one or more cigarette is missing. The packets are placed on a conveyer belt running between a radioisotope and a counter. An empty or partially filled packet gives a higher counting rate due to less absorption of radiation than with a completely filled packet. The increase in counting rate can be converted into an electronic signal which knocks the incomplete packet off the belt. In industry, the tracer technique is used for testing the uniformity of mixtures. For testing a chocolate mixture, a small quantity of short-lived radioisotopes such as 24Na or 56Mn is added to the primary ingredients. Several different samples of the final products are then tested for radioactivity by means of a G. M. counter. If each sample gives the same counting rate, then the mixing has been uniform. This method can be used in mixing processes occurring in the manufacture of chocolate, soap, cement paints, fertilizers, cattle food and medical tablets. The tracer technique is extremely sensitive in testing the sealing process in making envelopes for radio valves. A sample valve is filled with radio-krypton (85Kr ) and a G. M. counter is held outside the valve. The counter detects even an extremely poor leakage.

Radiations from certain radioisotopes are used for killing insects which damage the food grains. Certain seeds and canned food can be stored for longer periods by gently exposing them to radiations. Better yields of milk from cows,and more eggs from hens have been obtained on the basis of information gained by mixing radioisotopes with their diet. Radioisotopes are used for determining the function of fertilizer in different plants. Radioisotopes are also used for producing high yielding crop seeds. Thus the agricultural yield is increased. The research at Trombay in the field of crop development has led to the development of 23 high yielding varieties of pulses, oilseeds, rice and jute. The BARC has developed groundnut varieties, which are very popular amongst farmers. BARC has also developed a tissue culture based protocol for rapid multiplication of 12 commercial cultivators of banana. In agriculture, the tracer technique is used to study the rate and direction of movement of an element in a plant. For this a radioisotope of that element is injected in the ground near the plant. After a few days the plant is laid on a photographic paper to produce an autoradiograph. The dark areas in the radiograph show the positions reached by the element. This technique gives valuable information regarding the optimum season for fertilising crops and for poisoning weeds.

Radioisotopes and their formulations find varied applications in diagnosis, therapy and healthcare. Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) supplies reactor produced radioisotopes and radionuclides for medical use. The radioisotopes processed and supplied by Board of Radiation & Isotope Technology (BRIT), Mumbai to medical uses across the country, include radiopharmaceuticals, brachy-therapy wires, radio-immunoassay (RIA) kits and various other products, and services. The accelerator at VECC manufactures radioisotopes, which are processed for medical applications. The Regional Radiation Medicine Centre (RRMC) meets the requirements of the eastern region of the country, for radiodiagnosis and therapy. The radiations given out by some radioisotopes are very effective in curing certain diseases. For example, radio-cobalt is used in the treatment of brain tumour, radio-phosphorous in bone diseases and radio-iodine in thyroid cancer. The radiations, besides destroying the ailing tissue, also damage the healthy tissue and hence a careful control over the quantity administered is necessary. Bacteria and other disease-carrying organisms can be destroyed by irradiating them with -rays. The process is used to sterilise medical instruments, plastic hypodermic needles, packets of antibiotics, and hospital blankets; whereas heat sterilisation would damage them. A portable source of -rays for sterilization is radio-cobalt . X-ray photography in medical diagnosis can be replaced by -ray photography with advantage. The -ray source (radioisotope) is compact and needs no power supply. In the field of medicine the tracer technique is employed in a number of ways. For example, the doctor can find out any obstruction in the circulation of the blood in the human body. He injects radiophosphorous into the blood of the patient and examines the movement of the blood by detecting radiations emitted by by means of G. M. counter. He can thus locate clots of blood present in the body. In a similar way, the passage of a particular element in the body and the rate at which it accumulates in different organs can be studied. For example, phosphorous accumulates in bones, and iodine in thyroid gland.

Geologic disposal
The process of selecting appropriate deep final repositories for high level waste and spent fuel is now under way in several countries with the first expected to be commissioned some time after 2010. The basic concept is to locate a large, stable geologic formation and use mining technology to excavate a tunnel, or largebore tunnel boring machines to drill a shaft 5001,000 meters below the surface where rooms or vaults can be excavated for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The goal is to permanently isolate nuclear waste from the human environment. Many people remain uncomfortable with the immediate stewardship cessation of this disposal system, suggesting perpetual management and monitoring would be more prudent. Because some radioactive species have half-lives longer than one million years, even very low container leakage and radionuclide migration rates must be taken into account.[48] Moreover, it may require more than one half-life until some nuclear materials lose enough radioactivity to cease being lethal to living things. A 1983 review of the Swedish radioactive waste disposal program by the National Academy of Sciences found that countrys estimate of several hundred thousand years perhaps up to one million years being necessary for waste isolation . Aside from dilution, chemically toxic stable elements in some waste such as arsenic remain toxic for up to billions of years or indefinitely. Sea-based options for disposal of radioactive waste include burial beneath a stable abyssal plain, burial in a subduction zone that would slowly carry the waste downward into the Earth's mantle, and burial beneath a remote natural or human-made island. While these approaches all have merit and would facilitate an international solution to the problem of disposal of radioactive waste, they would require an amendment of the Law of the Sea. The proposed land-based subductive waste disposal method disposes of nuclear waste in a subduction zone accessed from land, and therefore is not prohibited by international agreement. This method has been described as the most viable means of disposing of radioactive waste, and as the state-of-the-art as of 2001 in nuclear waste disposal technology. Another approach termed Remix & Return would blend highlevel waste with uranium mine and mill tailings down to the level of the original radioactivity of the uranium ore, then replace it in inactive uranium mines. This approach has the merits of providing jobs for miners who would double as disposal staff, and of facilitating a cradle-to-grave cycle for radioactive materials, but would be inappropriate for spent reactor fuel in the absence of reprocessing, due to the presence in it of highly toxic radioactive elements such as plutonium. Deep borehole disposal is the concept of disposing of high-level radioactive waste from nuclear reactors in extremely deep boreholes. Deep borehole disposal seeks to place the waste as much as five kilometers beneath the surface of the Earth and relies primarily on the immense natural geological barrier to confine the waste safely and permanently so that it should never pose a threat to the environment. The Earth's crust contains 120 trillion tons of thorium and 40 trillion tons of uranium among other natural radioisotopes. Since the fraction of nuclides decaying per unit of time is inversely proportional to an isotope's half-life, the relative radioactivity of the lesser amount of human-produced radioisotopes would diminish once the isotopes with far shorter half-lives than the bulk of natural radioisotopes decayed. 5

Above-ground disposal
Dry cask storage typically involves taking waste from a spent fuel pool and sealing it (along with an inert gas) in a steel cylinder, which is placed in a concrete cylinder which acts as a radiation shield. It is a relatively inexpensive method which can be done at a central facility or adjacent to the source reactor. The waste can be easily retrieved for reprocessing

Transmutation
There have been proposals for reactors that consume nuclear waste and transmute it to other, less-harmful nuclear waste. In particular, theIntegral Fast Reactor was a proposed nuclear reactor with a nuclear fuel cycle that produced no transuranic waste and in fact, could consume transuranic waste. It proceeded as far as large-scale tests, but was then canceled by the US Government. Another approach, considered safer but requiring more development, is to dedicate subcritical reactors to the transmutation of the leftover transuranic elements. An isotope that is found in nuclear waste and that represents a concern in terms of proliferation is Pu-239. The estimated world total of plutonium in the year 2000 was of 1,645 MT, of which 210 MT had been separated by reprocessing. The large stock of plutonium is a result of its production inside uranium-fueled reactors and of the reprocessing of weapons-grade plutonium during the weapons program. An option for getting rid of this plutonium is to use it as a fuel in a traditional Light Water Reactor (LWR). Several fuel types with differing plutonium destruction efficiencies are under study. See Nuclear transmutation. Transmutation was banned in the US in April 1977 by President Carter due to the danger of plutonium proliferation, but President Reagan rescinded the ban in 1981. Due to the economic losses and risks, construction of reprocessing plants during this time did not resume. Due to high energy demand, work on the method has continued in the EU. This has resulted in a practical nuclear research reactor calledMyrrha in which transmutation is possible. Additionally, a new research program called ACTINET has been started in the EU to make transmutation possible on a large, industrial scale. According to President Bush's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) of 2007, the US is now actively promoting research on transmutation technologies needed to markedly reduce the problem of nuclear waste treatment. There have also been theoretical studies involving the use of fusion reactors as so called "actinide burners" where a fusion reactor plasmasuch as in a tokamak, could be "doped" with a small amount of the "minor" transuranic atoms which would be transmuted (meaning fissioned in the actinide case) to lighter elements upon their successive bombardment by the very high energy neutrons produced by the fusion ofdeuterium and tritium in the reactor. A study at MIT found that only 2 or 3 fusion reactors with parameters similar to that of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) could transmute the entire annual minor actinide production from all of the light water reactorspresently operating in the United States fleet while simultaneously generating approximately 1 gigawatt of power from each reactor.

Space disposal
Space disposal is an attractive notion because it permanently removes nuclear waste 6 from the environment. It has significant disadvantages, not least of which is the potential for catastrophic failure of a launch vehicle which would spread radioactive material into the atmosphere and around the world. The high number of launches that would be required (because no individual rocket would be able to carry very much of the material relative to the total which needs to be disposed of) makes the proposal impractical (for both economic and risk-based reasons) using current rockets, resulting in some suggestions for developing a mass driver for disposal instead. To further complicate matters, international agreements on the regulation of such a program would need to be established.

Re-use of waste
Another option is to find applications for the isotopes in nuclear waste so as to reuse them. Already, caesium-137, strontium-90 and a few other isotopes are extracted for certain industrial applications such as food irradiation and radioisotope thermoelectric generators. While re-use does not eliminate the need to manage radioisotopes, it reduces the quantity of waste produced. The Nuclear Assisted Hydrocarbon Production Method, Canadian patent application 2,659,302, is a method for the temporary or permanent storage of nuclear waste materials comprising the placing of waste materials into one or more repositories or boreholes constructed into an unconventional oil formation. The thermal flux of the waste materials fracture the formation, alters the chemical and/or physical properties of hydrocarbon material within the subterranean formation to allow removal of the altered material. A mixture of hydrocarbons, hydrogen, and/or other formation fluids are produced from the formation. The radioactivity of high-level radioactive waste affords proliferation resistance to plutonium placed in the periphery of the repository or the deepest portion of a borehole. Breeder reactors can run on U-238 and transuranic elements, which comprise the majority of spent fuel radioactivity in the 1000-100000 year time span.