Isotopes to Worry About: Cesium-137, Iodine-131, and Strontium-90

Three hazardous isotopes released by a nuclear explosion or accident are cesium-137, iodine-131, and strontium-90.

Cesium-137

Isotopes with short half lives often have disappeared within days of a nuclear accident, after they emit lots of radiation. Isotopes with long half lives may linger for millennia, but aren’t very radioactive. Isotopes with half lives of a few decades are “just right” for being an environmental hazard; their lifetimes are short enough that they release a lot of radioactivity, but are long enough that they cause decades of danger. Cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs) has a half-life of 30 years. It is the main source of remaining radiation at the site of the Chernobyl accident.

Cesium-137 is volatile, meaning it evaporates at high temperatures, allowing it to mix with the air and spread with the wind. In addition, cesium is in the same column of the periodic table as sodium and potassium, so it forms water soluble salts that distribute throughout the body. It beta decays (0.51 MeV) to a meta-stable state of barium-137, which then decays by emission of a gamma ray (0.66 MeV).

Accidental uptake of caesium-137 can be treated with Prussian blue, which binds to it and reduces its biological half-life from 70 to 30 days.

Iodine-131

Iodine-131 (¹³¹I) has a half-life of eight days, so it is dangerous for only a few weeks after a nuclear explosion or accident. However, radioactive iodine is concentrated in the thyroid gland, causing thyroid cancer. Iodine-131 undergoes beta decay (0.61 MeV) to xenon-131, which then emits a 0.36 MeV gamma ray. It’s so potent a radioisotope that it’s used for cancer therapy (see Section 17.11 of Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology).

After a nuclear accident, people take potassium iodide pills to flood the thyroid gland with non-radioactive iodine, suppressing the uptake of the radioactive isotope.

Strontium-90

Like cesium-137, strontium-90 (⁹⁰Sr) has a half life of about 30 years. It undergoes beta decay (0.55 MeV) to yttrium-90, which in turn beta decays (2.3 MeV) to stable zirconium-90. Strontium-90 is in the same column of the periodic table as calcium, so it is taken up by bones (it’s a “bone seeker”) and therefore has a long biological half-life (about 18 years).

Dirty Bombs

Want something to worry about? Consider this radiological nightmare: a terrorist dirty bomb consisting of equal parts cesium-137, iodine-131, and strontium-90. Good luck sleeping tonight.