The earths magnetic field shields earth from comic rays.
Can a Magnetic field shield against nuclear radiation?
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is there a difference between comic rays and nuclear radiation?
In: 0
Some types yes, but not all
The important bit here is that when a charged particle passes through a magnetic field its course gets curved
Some radiation is made of charged particles, but not all. Cosmic rays are high energy protons (positively charged), alpha radiation is a high speed helium atom with no electrons (positively charged), and beta radiation is a high speed electron (negatively charged). All three of these can be diverted by magnetic fields.
Gamma rays are one of the big concerns for nuclear radiation and they’re just photons with no charge, you can’t divert them just put something dense in the way to absorb them. Things containing the radioactive elements also have to worry about neutron radiation which is a high speed neutron that shoots out but since its a neutron it doesn’t have a charge and doesn’t care about magnetic fields.
For most of the radiation that we’re really worried about (gamma rays) magnetic fields will have no effect. We’re not particularly worried about alpha and beta particles because you can stop them with a sheet of aluminum foil reliably so magnetic shielding is a bit excessive
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