Nordion plays a significant role in safeguarding global health by supplying
Cobalt-60 to sterilize single-use medical devices, to reduce pathogens in food and other products, and to treat certain cancers.
Cobalt-60 (Co-60) based radiation therapy continues to play a significant role in not only developed countries but also in developing countries where access to radiation therapy is very limited.4 The easy handling of cobalt units gives them the advantage of reduced maintenance, running costs and downtime when compared with linear accelerators machines.
However,
cobalt-60 has a short half-life of 5.3 years which means technicians have to regularly make, transport and install new sources.
The missing shipment of radioactive
cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico.
Owing to the short
cobalt-60 half-life, the doses significantly diminished with time.
Robots removed a pencil-sized sliver of
cobalt-60, likely from an improperly discarded medical device, but only after dozens of people were exposed.
It turns out Roman's vehicle was transporting
cobalt-60, a key component of dirty bombs.
One person had died and 11 suffered various complications in April owing to exposure to radioactive material
Cobalt-60 in the scrap market during the dismantling of a gamma irradiator brought from Delhi University.
It is pertinent to mention that ten sources of radioactive substance
Cobalt-60 were found in the Mayapuri scrap market earlier this month and eight persons were hospitalised following radiation exposure.
An IAEA statement said a plane carrying 36
Cobalt-60 sources; each one radioactive enough to kill a person within minutes, reached Russia safely from Lebanon on Aug.