Cobalt-60

Decay

The diagram shows a simplified decay scheme of ⁶⁰Co and ^60mCo. The main β-decay transitions are shown. The probability for population of the middle energy level of 2.1 MeV by β-decay is only 0.0022%, with a β-energy of 0.67 MeV. Transitions between the three levels generate six different gamma-ray frequencies. In the diagram the two important ones are marked. Internal conversion is not significant.

The half-value and 1/10th value layer thickness for shielding against this isotope's radiations has been determined for different materials:

Applications

The main advantage of ⁶⁰Co is that it is a high-intensity gamma-ray emitter with a relatively long half-life (over 5 years) compared to similar gamma-ray sources. The β-radiation is low-energy and easily shielded; however, the gamma rays are highly penetrating. The physical properties of cobalt such as resistance to bulk oxidation and low solubility in water give some advantages in safety in the case of a containment breach over some other gamma sources such as caesium-137. The main uses for ⁶⁰Co are:

• As a tracer for cobalt in chemical reactions
• Sterilization of medical equipment.
• Radiation source for medical radiotherapy; specifically cobalt therapy, which uses beams of gamma rays from ⁶⁰Co teletherapy machines.
• Radiation source for industrial radiography.
• Radiation source for leveling devices and thickness gauges.
• Radiation source for pest insect sterilization.
• As a radiation source for food irradiation and blood irradiation.
• As a primary standard for radiation dosimetry calibration.

Cobalt has been discussed as a "salting" element to add to nuclear weapons, to produce a cobalt bomb, an extremely "dirty" weapon which would contaminate large areas with ⁶⁰Co nuclear fallout, rendering them uninhabitable for a decade or more (multiple half-lives of cobalt-60) due to the gamma radiation field. In one design, the tamper of the weapon would be made of ⁵⁹Co (natural cobalt). When the bomb explodes, neutrons from the nuclear fission would irradiate the cobalt and transmute it to ⁶⁰Co. No country is known to have done any serious development of this type of weapon.

Production

⁶⁰Co does not occur naturally on Earth in significant amounts, so ⁶⁰Co is synthesized by bombarding a ⁵⁹Co target with a thermal neutron source - in a commercial or industrial context, that means a nuclear reactor. The CANDU reactors can be used to activate ⁵⁹Co, by substituting the control rods with cobalt rods. In the United States, as of 2010, it is being produced in a boiling water reactor at Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The cobalt targets are substituted here for a small number of fuel assemblies. Still, over 40% of all single-use medical devices are sterilized using ⁶⁰
Co from Bruce nuclear generating station. The reaction in all cases is

⁵⁹Co + n → ⁶⁰Co + γ

(neutron capture).

Safety

Because of the activity of manufactured ⁶⁰Co sources, their radioactivity can present a severe hazard to humans, and can cause death (potentially in less than an hour from acute exposure).

After entering a living mammal (such as a human), assuming that the subject does not die shortly after exposure (as may happen in acute exposure incidents), some of the ⁶⁰Co is excreted in feces. The rest is taken up by tissues, mainly the liver, kidneys, and bones, where the prolonged exposure to gamma radiation can cause cancer. Over time, the absorbed cobalt is eliminated in urine.

Steel contamination

Cobalt is found in steel. Uncontrolled disposal of ⁶⁰Co in scrap metal is responsible for the radioactivity in some iron products.

Circa 1983, construction was finished of 1700 apartments in Taiwan which were built with steel contaminated with cobalt-60. About 10,000 people occupied these buildings during a 9–20 year period. On average, these people unknowingly received a radiation dose of 0.4 Sv. Some studies have found that this large group did not suffer a higher incidence of cancer mortality, as the linear no-threshold model would predict, but suffered a lower cancer mortality than the general Taiwan public. These observations support the radiation hormesis model, however other studies have found health impacts that confound the results.

In August 2012, Petco recalled several models of steel pet food bowls after US Customs and Border Protection determined that they were emitting low levels of radiation, which was determined to be from ⁶⁰Co that had contaminated the steel.

In May 2013, a batch of metal-studded belts sold by online retailer ASOS were confiscated and held in a US radioactive storage facility after testing positive for ⁶⁰Co.

Incidents involving medical radiation sources

A radioactive contamination incident occurred in 1984 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, originating from a radiation therapy unit illegally purchased by a private medical company and subsequently dismantled for lack of personnel to operate it. The radioactive material, ⁶⁰Co, ended up in a junkyard, where it was sold to foundries that inadvertently smelted it with other metals and produced about 6,000 tons of contaminated rebar. These were distributed in 17 Mexican states and several cities in the United States. It is estimated that 4,000 people were exposed to radiation as a result of this incident.

In the Samut Prakan radiation accident in 2000, a disused radiotherapy head containing a ⁶⁰Co source was stored at an unsecured location in Bangkok, Thailand and then accidentally sold to scrap collectors. Unaware of the danger, a junkyard employee dismantled the head and extracted the source, which remained unprotected for a period of days at the junkyard. Ten people, including the scrap collectors and workers at the junkyard, were exposed to high levels of radiation and became ill. Three junkyard workers later died of their exposure, which was estimated to be over 6 Gy. Afterward, the source was safely recovered by Thai authorities.

In December 2013, a truck carrying a disused 111 TBq ⁶⁰Co teletherapy source from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center was hijacked at a gas station near Mexico City. The truck was soon recovered, but the thieves had removed the source from its shielding. It was found intact in a nearby field. Despite early reports with lurid headlines asserting that the thieves were "likely doomed", the radiation sickness was mild enough that the suspects were quickly released to police custody, and no one is known to have died from the incident.

Other incidents

On 13 September 1999, six people tried to steal ⁶⁰Co rods from a chemical plant in the city of Grozny, Chechen Republic, Russia. During the theft, the suspects opened the radioactive material container and handled it, resulting in the deaths of three of the suspects and injury of the remaining three. The suspect who held the material directly in his hands died of radiation exposure 30 minutes later. This incident is described as an attempted theft, but some of the rods are reportedly still missing.

Parity

In 1957, Chien-Shiung Wu et al. discovered that β-decay violated parity, implying nature (the weak force) sees handedness. In the Wu experiment, researchers aligned ⁶⁰Co nuclei by cooling the source to low temperatures in a magnetic field. Wu's observation was that more β-rays were emitted in the opposite direction to the nuclear spin. This asymmetry violates parity conservation.

Suppliers

Argentina, Canada, India and Russia are the largest suppliers of ⁶⁰Co in the world. Both Argentina and Canada have (as of 2022) an all-heavy-water reactor fleet for power generation. Canada has CANDU in numerous locations throughout Ontario as well as Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick, while Argentina has two German-supplied heavy water reactors at Atucha nuclear power plant and a Canadian-built CANDU at Embalse Nuclear Power Station. India has CANDU reactors at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station used for producing ⁶⁰Co. India had a capacity of more than 6 MCi of ⁶⁰Co production in 2021; this capacity is slated to increase with more CANDU reactors being commissioned at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station. Heavy-water reactors are particularly well suited for production of ⁶⁰Co because of their excellent neutron economy and because their capacity for online refueling allows targets to be inserted into the reactor core and removed after a predetermined time without the need for cold shutdown.

In popular culture

⁶⁰Co is the material encasing a massive nuclear warhead attached to a missile called the Alpha-Omega Doomsday Bomb in the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).

In an episode of 9-1-1 (TV series), a truck illegally transporting ⁶⁰Co causes a hazardous emergency for a team of firefighters.

In the 1959 film, City of Fear, ⁶⁰Co is central to the plot in which an escaped convict obtains the material, believing it to be heroin and endangering the city of Los Angeles.