Word: cobalt
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...already alarmingly dependent on imports for many of its most critical industrial raw materials. In all, 98% of America's manganese, 97% of its cobalt, 93% of its aluminum and 91% of its chromium come from foreign ores. More than 50% of its tin, nickel, zinc and tungsten ores are also imported. The supply of several of these materials is susceptible to interruption because they come from either the Soviet Union or from unstable southern African nations that suffer serious internal troubles. The most important minerals include...
...Cobalt. A white metal used in jet aircraft engines as well as mining and machine-tool bits, cobalt is supplied mainly by Zaire, which has 65% of the non-Communist world's reserves. Recurrent civil wars over the past three years have kept the price dancing between $6.40 and $50 per Ib. Other producers include the U.S.S.R. and Cuba. Reports Charles River Associates, a consulting firm in Boston: "The cobalt situation is one of the most serious problems facing consumers of critical materials today...
...special reverence is held for LAMPF, the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility. There, one of the most powerful linear proton accelerators in existence is using a particle called a pion to treat certain cancers. Because of the technique's pinpoint accuracy, it is a possible substitute for dreaded cobalt and X-ray therapy...
Radioactive materials are essential tools in modern medicine. A radioactive form, or isotope, of cobalt is used in treatment of cancer. Radioactive isotopes of other elements are employed as tracers that enable doctors to follow the paths of substances through the body. For example, iodine 131, given orally or intravenously, is accumulated by the thyroid, which uses iodine to produce hormones. An imaging device detects the gamma rays given off by the isotope and translates them into dots that appear oij a TV screen. Result: help in diagnosing such disorders as hyperthyroidism and cancer...
Cormack returned to Harvard's cyclotron in 1963 to carry out one of the experiments which lead to the development of the CAT scanning process, because only Harvard could supply the cobalt 60 needed to confirm his theories...