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Cobalt-60 (60 Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] : 39 It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors . Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisotopic and mononuclidic cobalt isotope 59
After retrieval from the core, processing can extract the cobalt-60 for manufacture into a useful radiation source. The vast majority of the world's cobalt-60 supply - over 80% - has traditionally come from Canada's National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River. In general, the supply situation for medical and industrial isotopes is ...
According to the 1985 CNSNS report, about four thousand people were exposed to cobalt-60 radiation as a result of the incident. [3] It is estimated that almost 80 percent of people received a dose less than 500 mrem (equivalent to 5 m Sv ); 18 percent, between 0.5 and 25 rems (5–25 mSv); and only two percent (about 80 people) received doses ...
Cobalt therapy is the medical use of gamma rays from the radioisotope cobalt-60 to treat conditions such as cancer. Beginning in the 1950s, cobalt-60 was widely used in external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy) machines, which produced a beam of gamma rays which was directed into the patient's body to kill tumor tissue.
Between March and July 1962, a radiation incident in Mexico City occurred when a ten-year-old boy took home an industrial radiography source that was not contained in its proper shielding. Five individuals received significant doses of radiation from the 200- gigabecquerel cobalt-60 capsule, [ 1 ] four of whom died.
For example, cobalt-60 irradiators are used by a number of departments to sterilize biological samples. It is also used for professional training for nuclear utility operators and engineers, DOE Interns, and State and local radiation protection personnel. [6] This reactor is well suited for duplicating the fuel performance of power reactors.
The buyers dismantled the containers, exposing themselves and others to ionizing radiation. Eighteen people, including seven children, were admitted to hospital. Ten of the adults developed acute radiation syndrome. One exposed cobalt-60 source was retrieved, but the source from the other package was still unaccounted for one year later.
Between 1958 and 1972, the Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio became the first hospital in Central Ohio to develop an extensive cobalt therapy program, where the use of cobalt-60 became the dominant radiation source for treating patients with cancer. In 1973, 30-year-old Joel Axt was hired by the hospital as the resident physicist ...