Caesium-137

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"Cesium 137" redirects here. For the band, see Cesium 137 (band).

Caesium-137, 137Cs
gamma-rays)
0.6617
Isotopes of caesium
Complete table of nuclides

Caesium-137 (137
55Cs
), cesium-137 (US),

salts. Caesium-137 was discovered by Glenn T. Seaborg and Margaret Melhase
.

Decay

137Cs decay scheme showing half-lives, daughter nuclides, and types and proportion of radiation emitted.
137Cs gamma spectrum. The characteristic 662 keV peak does not originate directly from 137Cs, but from the decay of 137mBa to its stable state.

Caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30.05 years.[1] About 94.6%

terabecquerel (TBq).[9]

Uses

Caesium-137 has a number of practical uses. In small amounts, it is used to calibrate radiation-detection equipment.

flow meters, thickness gauges,[10] moisture-density gauges (for density readings, with americium-241/beryllium providing the moisture reading),[11] and in gamma ray well logging devices.[11][failed verification
]

Caesium-137 is not widely used for

caesium-135. Isotope separation is too costly compared to cheaper alternatives. Also the higher specific activity caesium sources tend to be made from very soluble caesium chloride (CsCl), as a result if a radiography source was damaged it would increase the spread of the contamination. It is possible to make water insoluble caesium sources (with various ferrocyanide compounds such as Ni
2Fe(CN)
6, and ammonium ferric hexacyano ferrate (AFCF), Giese salt, ferric ammonium ferrocyanide but their specific activity will be much lower. Other chemically inert caesium compounds include caesium-aluminosilicate-glasses akin to the natural mineral pollucite. The latter has been used in demonstration of chemically stable water-insoluble forms of nuclear waste for disposal in deep geological repositories. A large emitting volume will harm the image quality in radiography. 192
Ir and 60
Co, are preferred for radiography, since these are chemically non-reactive metals and can be obtained with much higher specific activities by the activation of stable cobalt or iridium in high flux reactors. However, while 137
Cs is a waste product produced in great quantities in nuclear fission reactors, 192
Ir and 60
Co are specifically produced in commercial and research reactors and their life cycle entails the destruction of the involved high-value elements. Cobalt-60 decays to stable nickel
, whereas iridium-192 can decay to either stable osmium or platinum. Due to the residual radioactivity and legal hurdles, the resulting material is not commonly recovered even from "spent" radioactive sources, meaning in essence that the entire mass is "lost" for non-radioactive uses.

As an almost purely human-made isotope, caesium-137 has been used to date wine and detect counterfeits[12] and as a relative-dating material for assessing the age of sedimentation occurring after 1945.[13]

Caesium-137 is also used as a radioactive tracer in geologic research to measure soil erosion and deposition; its affinity for fine sediments is useful in this application.[14]

Health risks

Caesium-137 reacts with water, producing a water-soluble compound (caesium hydroxide). The biological behaviour of caesium is similar to that of potassium[15] and rubidium. After entering the body, caesium gets more or less uniformly distributed throughout the body, with the highest concentrations in soft tissue.[16] : 114  However, unlike group 2 radionuclides like radium and strontium-90, caesium does not bioaccumulate and is excreted relatively quickly. The biological half-life of caesium is about 70 days.[17]

A 1961 experiment showed that mice dosed with 21.5 

rads), they die within 33 days, while animals with half of that burden all survived for a year.[19] Important researches have shown a remarkable concentration of 137Cs in the exocrine cells of the pancreas, which are those most affected by cancer.[20][21] In 2003, in autopsies performed on 6 children who died in the polluted area near Chernobyl (of reasons not directly linked to the Chernobyl disaster; mostly sepsis), where they also reported a higher incidence of pancreatic tumors, Bandazhevsky found a concentration of 137Cs 3.9 times higher than in their livers (1359 vs 347 Bq/kg, equivalent to 36 and 9.3 nCi/kg in these organs, 600 Bq/kg = 16 nCi/kg in the body according to measurements), thus demonstrating that pancreatic tissue is a strong accumulator and secretor in the intestine of radioactive cesium.[22]
Accidental ingestion of caesium-137 can be treated with Prussian blue (FeIII
4[FeII
(CN)
6]
3), which binds to it chemically and reduces the biological half-life to 30 days.[23]

Environmental contamination

The ten highest deposits of caesium-137 from U.S. nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. Test explosions "Simon" and "Harry" were both from Operation Upshot–Knothole in 1953, while the test explosions "George" and "How" were from Operation Tumbler–Snapper in 1952.
Medium-lived
fission products [further explanation needed]
t½
(year
) 		Yield
(%)
keV
)
βγ
155Eu
  4.76 0.0803  252 βγ
85Kr 10.76 0.2180  687 βγ
113mCd
 14.1  0.0008  316 β
90Sr 28.9  4.505   2826 β
137Cs 30.23 6.337   1176 βγ
121mSn
 43.9  0.00005 390 βγ
151Sm
 88.8  0.5314  77 β

Caesium-137, along with other radioactive isotopes

Fukushima Daiichi disaster
.

Caesium-137 in the environment is substantially

Jefferson bottles".[25]
Surface soils and sediments are also dated by measuring the activity of 137Cs.

Nuclear bomb fallout

Bombs in the arctic area of

Novaja Zemlja and bombs detonated in or near the stratosphere released cesium-137 that landed in upper Lapland, Finland. Measurements of cesium-137 in 1960's was reportedly 45,000 becquerels. Figures from 2011 have a mid range of about 1,100 becquerels, but strangely, cancer cases are no more common there than elsewhere.[26][27][28]

Chernobyl disaster

Main article: Chernobyl disaster

As of today and for the next few hundred years or so, caesium-137 and

Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and pose the greatest risk to health, owing to their approximately 30 year half-life and biological uptake. The mean contamination of caesium-137 in Germany following the Chernobyl disaster was 2000 to 4000 Bq/m2.[citation needed] This corresponds to a contamination of 1 mg/km2 of caesium-137, totaling about 500 grams deposited over all of Germany. In Scandinavia, some reindeer and sheep exceeded the Norwegian legal limit (3000 Bq/kg) 26 years after Chernobyl.[29]
As of 2016, the Chernobyl caesium-137 has decayed by half, but could have been locally concentrated by much larger factors.

Fukushima Daiichi disaster

Main article:
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
Calculated caesium-137 concentration in the air after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, 25 March 2011.

In April 2011, elevated levels of caesium-137 were also being found in the environment after the

North Pacific current from Japan to the Gulf of Alaska. It has been measured in the surface layer down to 200 meters and south of the current area down to 400 meters.[33]

Cesium-137 is reported to be the major health concern in Fukushima. A number of techniques are being considered that will be able to strip out 80% to 95% of the caesium from contaminated soil and other materials efficiently and without destroying the organic material in the soil. These include hydrothermal blasting. The caesium precipitated with ferric

mSv above background. The most contaminated area where radiation doses are greater than 50 mSv/year must remain off limits, but some areas that are currently less than 5 mSv/year may be decontaminated, allowing 22,000 residents to return.[citation needed
]

Incidents and accidents

Caesium-137 gamma sources have been involved in several radiological accidents and incidents.

1987 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

In the Goiânia accident of 1987, an improperly disposed of radiation therapy system from an abandoned clinic in Goiânia, Brazil, was removed, then cracked to be sold in junkyards. The glowing caesium salt was then to be sold to curious, unadvised buyers.[35] This led to four confirmed deaths and several serious injuries from radiation contamination.[36][37]

1989 Kramatorsk, Donetsk, Ukraine

The

Ukrainian SSR. It is believed that the capsule, originally a part of a measurement device, was lost in the late 1970s and ended up mixed with gravel used to construct the building in 1980. Over 9 years, two families had lived in the apartment. By the time the capsule was discovered, 6 residents of the building had died, 4 from leukemia and 17 more receiving varying doses of radiation.[38]

1997 Georgia

In 1997, several Georgian soldiers suffered radiation poisoning and burns. They were eventually traced back to training sources left abandoned, forgotten, and unlabeled after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One was a caesium-137 pellet in a pocket of a shared jacket that released about 130,000 times the level of background radiation at 1 meter distance.[39]

1998 Los Barrios, Cádiz, Spain

In the Acerinox accident of 1998, the Spanish recycling company Acerinox accidentally melted down a mass of radioactive caesium-137 that came from a gamma-ray generator.[40]

2009 Tongchuan, Shaanxi, China

In 2009, a Chinese cement company (in

scrap metal on its way to a steel mill, where the radioactive caesium was melted down into the steel.[41]

March 2015, University of Tromsø, Norway

In March 2015, the Norwegian University of Tromsø lost 8 radioactive samples, including samples of caesium-137, americium-241, and strontium-90. The samples were moved out of a secure location to be used for education. When the samples were supposed to be returned, the university was unable to find them. As of 4 November 2015, the samples are still missing.[42][43]

March 2016 Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

On 3 and 4 March 2016, unusually high levels of caesium-137 were detected in the air in Helsinki, Finland. According to STUK, the country's nuclear regulator, measurements showed 4,000 μBq/m3 – about 1,000 times the usual level. An investigation by the agency traced the source to a building from which STUK and a radioactive waste treatment company operate.[44][45]

May 2019 Seattle, Washington, United States

Thirteen people were exposed to caesium-137 in May 2019 at the Research and Training building in the Harborview Medical Center complex. A contract crew was transferring the caesium from the lab to a truck when the powder was spilled. Five people were decontaminated and released, but 8 who were more directly exposed were taken to the hospital while the research building was evacuated.[46]

January 2023 Western Australia, Australia

Further information: Western Australian radioactive capsule incident

Public health authorities in

X-rays an hour". Experts warned, if the capsule were found, the public should stay at least 5 metres away.[47] The capsule was found on 1 February 2023.[48]

March 2023 Prachin Buri, Thailand

A caesium-137 capsule went missing from a steam power plant in Prachin Buri province, Thailand on 23 February 2023, triggering a search by officials from Thailand's Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) and the Prachin Buri provincial administration. However, the Thai public was not notified until 14 March.[49]

On 20 March, the Secretary-General of the OAP and the governor of Prachin Buri held a press conference stating that they had found caesium-137 contaminated furnace dust at a steel melting plant in Kabin Buri district.[50]

April 2024 Khabarovsk, Russia

On Friday, April 5 an emergency regime was introduced in the Russian city of Khabarovsk after a local resident accidentally discovered that radiation levels had jumped sharply in one of the industrial areas of the city. According to volunteers of the dosimetric control group, the dosimeter at the NP site showed up to 800 microsieverts, which is 1600 times the safe value.

Employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations fenced of the area of 30 by 30 meters, where they found a capsule with cesium from a defectoscope. The find was placed in a protective container and taken away for disposal. This was first reported by the Novaya Gazeta. Source

See also

References

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Bibliography

  • Olsen, Rolf A. (1994). "4.2. The Transfer of Radiocaesium from Soil to Plants and Fungi in Seminatural Ecosystems". Nordic Radioecology - the Transfer of Radionuclides through Nordic Ecosystems to Man. Studies in Environmental Science. Vol. 62. pp. 265–286.
    ISBN 9780444816177
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External links
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