So I’m talking about something like Marie Curie’s notebook for example. It’s still highly radioactive, but why? What causes a non-radioactive object that’s been left in radiation to become radioactive?
Also does the same reason apply to all matter? If so, how are some items like surgical scalpels and even some food sterilized by ionizing radiation?
In: Physics
Generally it’s contaminated with traces of the radioactive material itself. In other words in the case of Marie Curies diary, it’s probably got traces of radium on, and in it. The paper itself isn’t radioactive, but it contains contaminants that are.
Sterilizing things with radiation, exposes them to radiation, but they don’t come in direct contact with the material that is the source of the radiation, and so they don’t become contaminated
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