Benefits Of Sodium 24

"Evaluate the benefits and problems associated with medical or industrial uses of nuclear energy with reference to one specific radioisotope"

Sodium 24

There are 20 different types of isotopes of sodium. Sodium 24 is just one of the 20 types, it is considered one of the most important isotopes. The isotope sodium 24 is radioactive form of sodium. It produces beta and gamma rays. With the half of 14.96 and the atomic weight of 22.989 769 28. It is used for medicine and engineering to trace the flow of either sodium or other liquids using radiation detectors. When using it for medicine, doctors inject the sodium 24 into a human and it is used as a tracer, the radiation of the sodium 24 can be traced by a radiation tracer, the tracing helps doctors

Sodium in its metallic form is very important in making esters and in the manufacture of the organic compounds. It is also a component of sodium chloride, a very important found everywhere in the living environment. Sodium 24 is one of the radioactive versions of sodium it is created when you mix the sodium with the radiation it changes into three different versions of sodium: sodium 22, sodium 23, sodium 24. All of these are used in the medical and industry fields for tracing but sodium 24 and 22 are used more than sodium 23.

Field Advantages Disadvantages

Industrial - nuclear power production, reduces dependence on other forms of power production e.g. coal which contributes more to climate change

- leak detection tracing

- thickness gauges

- irradiation of food and raw wool destroy mirco-organisms

- is a very effective

It is difficult to find out if a pipe is leaking underground so workers inject sodium 24 into these pipes. It is short term radioactive coolant which makes it easy to use. One of the ways to locate the leak is to add sodium 24 with oil. If the oil leaks out of the pipe, so does the sodium 24. The leaking may not be visible but the sodium 24 is easily detected. Due to the limited penetrating power of the sodium radiation, detectors are able to detect the radioactive sodium at leak point. But it can pose a serious health risk such as cancer if exposed and not handled with care to an individual and it will cause detrimental health risk and permanent damage if ingested into the skin (cancer or tissue damage). Because it is so dangerous you must wear disposable gloves and clothes because you can get radiation poisoning because the sodium 24 used in the industrial is much more dangerous than the medical sodium because it has less