Lesson: Nuclear Radiation in Medicine Physics

Students will be able to

• recall that only gamma emitters can be used as radioactive tracers,
• recall that isotopes used as radioactive tracers need to have a half-life of a few hours,
• recall that gamma radiation is used for radiation beam therapy, as it is the only type of radiation that can penetrate far enough into the body,
• recall that isotopes used in radiation beam therapy need to have long half-lives of several months or years so that the radioactive sources used do not need to be replaced frequently,
• recall that alpha, beta, and gamma emitters can be used for radioactive implants,
• recall that isotopes used for radioactive implants must have half-lives of several years,
• recall that sievert (Sv) is a unit of ionizing radiation doses.