Been on a paranormal kick but not necessary a believer, wondering how objects become radioactive that aren’t usually (like the hikers clothes at Dyotlov pass) I understand why they are considered radioactive (atoms with access energy?) but do we know why they suddenly are or is it a mystery in and of itself?
In: Chemistry
There’s two ways to make something radioactive. There’s the complicated way and the simple way.
**The Complicated Way**
Direct high-energy subatomic particles into the material. Some of the particles will interact with the atomic nuclei in the material, with different results, depending on the kind of particle. Positrons and electrons can change the electric charges of the nuclei so that they become unstable isotopes that can then gradually decay over time, emitting radiation in the process; charged particles from the sun do that all the time to nitrogen in the atmosphere, transforming it into radioactive carbon-14. Neutrons can likewise turn the nuclei into unstable isotopes, this time by changing their atomic mass.
This is complicated because you need a very prolific source of these particles to have any kind of effect on the material you’re trying to make radioactive, in which case you’re better off just using that source instead as the source of radioactivity.
**The Simple Way**
Just get a radioactive substance into the material. A fair amount of the substance will rub off onto it, making the whole thing radioactive. This is such a simple method that it can often happen by accident, such as in Marie Curie’s lab. She and her assistants got the substances on their hands and then rubbed that all over the nearby fixtures. The same thing happens with radioactive fallout where a nuclear weapon or a plant meltdown causes radioactive material to become vapourized; the material eventually settles out of the air onto everything that’s downwind, making it all radioactive. That was the situation in Chernobyl.
Latest Answers