Lugol's iodine Lugol's iodine Lugol's iodine, also known as aqueous iodine and strong iodine solution, is a solution of potassium iodide with iodine in water. It is a medication and disinfectant used for a number of purposes. Taken by mouth it is used to treat thyrotoxicosis until surgery can be carried out, protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine, and to treat iodine deficiency. When applied to the cervix it is used to help in screening for cervical cancer. As a disinfectant it may be applied to small wounds such as a needle stick injury. A small amount may also be used
Isotopes of iodine iodine-135 can temporarily preclude a shut-down reactor from restarting. This is known as xenon-poisoning or "falling into an iodine pit". Iodine fission-produced isotopes not discussed above (iodine-128, iodine-130, iodine-132, and iodine-133) have a half lives of a couple of hours or minutes, rendering them almost useless in other applicable areas. Those mentioned are neutron-rich and so go through beta decay to their xenon counterparts. Iodine-128 (25 min half-life) can decay to either tellurium-128 by electron capture, or to xenon-128 by beta decay. It has a specific radioactivity of 2.177 x 10 TBq/g. Colloquially, radioactive materials can be described as "hot,"