Editing Beta particle (section)

== Applications ==
Beta particles can be used to treat health conditions such as [[Eye neoplasm|eye]] and [[Bone tumor|bone cancer]] and are also used as tracers. [[Strontium-90]] is the material most commonly used to produce beta particles.

Beta particles are also used in quality control to test the thickness of an item, such as [[paper]], coming through a system of rollers. Some of the beta radiation is absorbed while passing through the product. If the product is made too thick or thin, a correspondingly different amount of radiation will be absorbed. A computer program monitoring the quality of the manufactured paper will then move the rollers to change the thickness of the final product.

An illumination device called a ''[[Beta light|betalight]]'' contains [[tritium]] and a [[phosphor]]. As tritium [[Radioactive decay|decays]], it emits beta particles; these strike the phosphor, causing the phosphor to give off [[photon]]s, much like the [[cathode-ray tube]] in a television. The illumination requires no external power, and will continue as long as the tritium exists (and the phosphors do not themselves chemically change); the [[Radiant flux|amount of light produced]] will drop to half its original value in 12.32 years, the [[half-life]] of tritium.

Beta-plus (or [[positron]]) decay of a [[radioactive tracer]] [[isotope]] is the source of the positrons used in [[positron emission tomography]] (PET&nbsp;scan).