eli5 How can non-radioactive elements and materials become radioactive?

Question

I understand how uranium is radioactive because it essentially tears itself apart but what I don’t understand is how like plastic and metal tools used to handle it becomes radioactive.

In: 1

Answer 1

The radioactivity detected from tools used to handle radioactive materials is just from trace amounts of the material being transferred to it so it’s still uranium atoms that are decaying, they’ve just been transferred to the tool in question