Industrial Radioisotopes

Naturally occurring radioisotopes:

Chlorine-36: Used to measure sources of chloride and the age of water (up to 2 million years)

Carbon-14: Used to measure the age of water (up to 50,000 years)

Tritium (H-3): Used to measure 'young' groundwater (up to 30 years)

Lead-210: Used to date layers of sand and soil up to 80 years

Artificially produced radioisotopes:

Americium-241:
Used in backscatter gauges, smoke detectors, fill height detectors and in measuring ash content of coal.

Caesium-137:
Used for radiotracer technique for identification of sources of soil erosion and deposition, in density and fill height level switches.

Silver-110m, Cobalt-60, Lanthanum-140, Scandium-46, Gold-198:
Used together in blast furnaces to determine resident times and to quantify yields to measure the furnace performance.

Cobalt-60:
Used for gamma sterilisation, industrial radiography, density and fill height switches.

Gold-198 & Technetium-99m:
Used to study sewage and liquid waste movements, as well as tracing factory waste causing ocean pollution, and to trace sand movement in river beds and ocean floors.

Strontium-90, Krypton-85, Thallium-204:
Used for industrial gauging.

Zinc-65 & Manganese-54:
Used to predict the behaviour of heavy metal components in effluents from mining waste water.

Iridium-192, Gold-198 & Chromium-57:
Used to label sand to study coastal erosion

Ytterbium-169, Iridium-192 & Selenium-75:
Used in gamma radiography and non-destructive testing.

Tritiated Water:
Used as a tracer to study sewage and liquid wastes.