Technetium

Radioactive wastes are extremely damaging since they travel up the food chain and cause cancer in humans. Hence, radioactive wastes storage and their disposal have become an ever growing problem throughout the world. The Savannah River Site in South Carolina houses some 160 million gallons (600 million liters) of such wastes still waiting for a permanent disposal solution.

The radioactive isotope Tc-99 of the 43rd element in the periodic table Technetium is found abundantly in the nuclear waste. It has a long half-life of about 200,000 years and can be carcinogenic when released into the environment. Scientists at the Berkeley National Laboratory, California, have devised methods to examine the in-situ chemical properties of Technetium and other chemical species and use it for the evaluation of safe methods to isolate them from the environment.

Technetium is not exactly one of the chemical elements that naturally occur in the environment; so there is no real danger of encountering or handling Technetium elements by the layman. But usually Technetium elements are often used for industrial purposes and most commonly in research laboratories for nuclear studies.

It is in such places that the element needs to be handled with care and while keeping certain precautions and risks in mind. Whatever technetium component it might be, they are all highly toxic and should be treated and handled that way with care.