What are radiation seeds made of?

Question

my mom works for a hospital and she was telling me how nuclear medicine works, you know radiation treatment, she said that when they give a patient radiation they have them swallow a radiation seed or it is implanted, she didnt know too much about it, ive seen what the seeds look like and i was wondering how much radiation do they put off and what are they made of? plutonium?

Answer 1

How much radiation depends on what they're made of. The material is chosen according to purpose of treatment. A one-time dose for the thyroid required very short-lived (i.e. small semi-decay) element. A prolonged tratment of prostate cancer needs something that emits for at least 1/2 year.

In any case it's not plutonium. Plutonium semi-decay is in thousands if years (somewhere around 10,000 years).

Answer 2

One type appears to use Iodine-125, a Gamma/X-ray emitter with a half life of 59.4 days.

The active material would be a small part of the device, the remainder being carrier and encapsulation, as the decay product is a toxic element.