Radioisotopes: their role in society today
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Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Abstract
Radioisotopes are playing an increasingly important part in Australian life. They are widely used in medicine, industry and scientific research, and new applications for their use are constantly being developed. In many cases, radioisotopes have no substitute and in most of their applications they are more effective and cheaper than alternative techniques or processes. Radioisotopes have been used routinely in medicine for over 30 years. On average, every Australian can expect at some stage in his or her life to undergo a nuclear medicine procedure that uses a radioisotope for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Some radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine have very short half-lives, which means they decay quickly; others with longer half-lives take more time to decay, which makes them suitable for therapeutic purposes.
Industry uses radioisotopes in a variety of ways to improve productivity and gain information that cannot be obtained in any other way. Radioisotopes are commonly used in industrial radiography, which uses a gamma source to conduct stress testing or check the integrity of welds – a common example is to test aeroplane jet engine turbines for structural integrity. Radioisotopes are also used by industry for gauging (to measure levels of liquid inside containers, for example) or to measure the thickness of materials. Radioisotopes are also widely used in scientific research, and are employed in a range of applications, from tracing the flow of contaminants in biological systems, to determining metabolic processes in small Australian animals.
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Keywords
Radioisotopes, Diagnostic techniques, Radiopharmaceuticals, ANSTO, Technetium 99, Atoms
Citation
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. (n.d.). Radioisotopes: their role in society today. Lucas Heights, NSW: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.