Cesium (chemical symbol Cs) is a soft, flexible, silvery-white metal that becomes liquid near room temperature, but easily bonds with chlorides to create a crystalline powder . The most common radioactive form of cesium is Cs-137. Cesium-137 is produced by nuclear fission.
What does cesium-137 do to the environment?
How does cesium change in the environment? Cesium-137 decays in the environment by emitting beta particles . As noted above, cesium-137 decays to a short lived decay product, barium-137m. The latter isotope emits gamma radiation of moderate energy, which further decays to a stable form of barium.
What Caesium-137 is used for?
In larger amounts, Cs-137 is used in medical radiation therapy devices for treating cancer ; in industrial gauges that detect the flow of liquid through pipes; and in other industrial devices to measure the thickness of materials, such as paper, photographic film, or sheets of metal.
What does 137 mean in cesium?
: a radioactive isotope of cesium that has the mass number 137 and a half-life of about 12 months and that is a by-product of nuclear fission.
How does cesium-137 treat cancer?
Despite serious safety concerns, non-radioactive cesium is taken by mouth for treating cancer. This is sometimes called “high pH therapy.” According to people who promote high pH therapy, taking cesium chloride by mouth reduces the acidity of tumor cells (raises their pH), which are described as very acidic.
How long does it take for cesium-137 to decay?
Radioactive isotopes eventually decay, or disintegrate, to harmless materials. Some isotopes decay in hours or even minutes, but others decay very slowly. Strontium-90 and cesium-137 have half-lives of about 30 years (half the radioactivity will decay in 30 years). Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years.
What does cesium do to the body?
Exposure to large amounts of radioactive cesium can damage cells in your body from the radiation . You might also experience acute radiation syndrome, which includes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, coma, and even death in cases of very high exposures.
What kind of radiation does cesium-137 emit?
A Cs-137 atom emits radiation in the form of medium energy gamma rays , and to a lesser extent, high-energy beta particles, which disrupt molecules in cells and deposits energy in tissues, causing damage.
How does cesium get into the body?
Cesium-137 can enter the body when it is inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin . After radioactive cesium is ingested, it is Page 2 – 2 – distributed fairly uniformly throughout the body’s soft tissues. Slightly higher concentrations are found in muscle; slightly lower concentrations are found in bone and fat.
Does cesium glow in the dark?
In the context of the Goiânia accident, CsCl is described as showing a blue glow in the dark .
What is the symbol of cesium?
cesium ( Cs ), also spelled caesium, chemical element of Group 1 (also called Group Ia) of the periodic table, the alkali metal group, and the first element to be discovered spectroscopically (1860), by German scientists Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, who named it for the unique blue lines of its spectrum (Latin ...
Where is cesium found?
Natural abundance
Caesium is found in the minerals pollucite and lepidolite . Pollucite is found in great quantities at Bernic Lake,Manitoba, Canada and in the USA, and from this source the element can be prepared. However, most commercialproduction is as a by-product of lithium production.
What has happened to the Caesium 137 that was released in the Chernobyl accident in the last 30 years?
A French respected intitution, the IRSN, estimates that that 80,000 cesium-137 terabecquerels were released into the environment , i.e. 30 to 40% of the amount present in the the damaged reactor core. ... Caesium had disappeared since a long time from the atmosphere after its deposition on the ground.
Is cesium used for cancer?
There is no evidence to support use of cesium chloride as a cancer treatment. Cesium chloride is promoted as an alternative cancer treatment. Supporters claim that cesium neutralizes the toxic material produced by tumor cells and prevents them from dividing. There is no scientific evidence to support these claims.
Is Caesium 137 natural?
Despite its prevalence in spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste, cesium-137 is actually extremely rare . Its half-life is too short for it to persist from natural fission sources, and on earth it is a synthetic isotope only. Should further nuclear accidents be avoided, the dangers of cesium-137 will eventually cease.
Is cesium toxic?
Nonradioactive caesium compounds are only mildly toxic , but the pure metal’s tendency to react explosively with water means that caesium is considered a hazardous material, and the radioisotopes present a significant health and ecological hazard in the environment.
