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What is a Radioactive Tracer?
A tracer is a radioactive
material
which is put into a liquid (or
gas).
Radioactive tracers
can be used in both medicine and industry.
How are Radioactive Tracers used in Industry?
A leak
in an underground industrial pipe can be
found
by adding a radioactive tracer to the liquid in the pipe.
A detector is
moved along the ground above where the
pipe
is buried.
The count rate will be found to increase where
the pipe is leaking as a larger amount of liquid
containing the
radioactive tracer
will
collect there. In the picture below,
the red arrows represent radioactivity emitted from the pipe.
What type of Radioactive Tracer is used to Detect Leaks?
The radioactive tracer would need to be a gamma
emitter.
Gamma rays can penetrate through the ground (and metal
pipe)
and be detected at the surface.
Alpha and
beta
radiation would
not penetrate through to the surface and could not be detected.
The gamma emitter tracer would have a short half-life
to minimize the danger to
living
organisms near to the pipe.
A short half-life means that the
amount of radioactivity
being emitted from the tracer
in the pipe would decrease
quickly.
Links
Radioactivity
Revision Questions
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