What is cesium-134 used for?

However, there are relatively few commercial uses for cesium compounds, such as cesium radioactive isotopes (134Cs and 137Cs), and they have been released into the environment by human activities such as the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons (1945–80) and leakages at nuclear power plants.

What is the difference between cesium-137 and cesium-134?

Caesium-134 has a radioactive half life of 2.06 years. It decays by beta emission, yielding one beta particle per transformation with a mean energy of 0.157 MeV. Caesium-137 has a radioactive half life of 30.2 years. …

What kind of damage does the radioactive isotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137 do the human body?

External exposure to large amounts of Cs-137 can cause burns, acute radiation sickness, and even death. Exposure to Cs-137 can increase the risk for cancer because of exposure to high-energy gamma radiation.

What type of decay does cesium-134 undergo?

beta decay
Radioactive cesium-134 primarily decays to stable barium-134 by beta decay accompanied by gamma ray emissions or less frequently to stable xenon-134 by electron capture (EC) accompanied by a single gamma ray emission. The energy of the various gamma rays are in the range of 0.24-1.4 MeV.

What is the symbol of cesium?

Cs
Caesium/Symbol

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.

Can you touch cesium?

If you were to breathe, eat, drink, touch, or come close to large amounts of radioactive cesium, cells in your body could become damaged from the radiation that might penetrate your entire body, much like x-rays, even if you did not touch the radioactive cesium.

Where is cesium used?

The most common use for caesium compounds is as a drilling fluid. They are also used to make special optical glass, as a catalyst promoter, in vacuum tubes and in radiation monitoring equipment. One of its most important uses is in the ‘caesium clock’ (atomic clock).

Where does cesium 134 get its uptake from?

Fungal mycelia assimilate 137 Cs very efficiently from the soil, and mushrooms may be an important source of 137Cs uptake in ruminants such as roe deer (Zibold et al., 2001) and goats ( Hove et al., 1990 ).

How long does Cesium 137 stay in the environment?

[ Fukushima Radiation Leak: 5 Things You Should Know] The initial nuclear accident from the Fukushima reactors released several radioactive isotopes, such as iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years and remains in the environment for decades.

Which is more radioactive cesium 137 or 134?

In this case, cesium-137 has more neutrons than cesium-134.) The scientists are tracking a radioactive plume from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Three nuclear reactors at the power plant melted down after the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake. The meltdown was triggered by the massive tsunami that followed the quake.

Why is 133 CS not produced by nuclear weapons?

It is also not produced by nuclear weapons because 133 Cs is created by beta decay of original fission products only long after the nuclear explosion is over. The combined yield of 133 Cs and 134 Cs is given as 6.7896%.