Determining the Half Life of Technetium through Nuclear Medicine Technology

by Brittney McDougal

Submitted : Fall 2010

This project was created to test the accuracy of a nuclear pharmacist’s calculations regarding a radioactive substance used in modern medicine. Technetium-99 is used because it can easily be detected in the human body. By calculating the half-life, which is defined as the period of time it takes for a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half, the estimated time that the technetium has to be used can be estimated. The accuracy of the pharmacist can be determined.

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