Does it mean that some of the atoms have absorbed neutrons and are now an unstable isotope thus emitting their own neutrons? How are irradiated things dangerous?
In: Physics
Fusion reactions like those aren’t common in practice, but that’s the general idea, yes. An irradiated object that itself becomes an emitter in this way is dangerous for the same reason any emitter is dangerous; ionizing radiation can mess up all sorts of things in otherwise tightly managed biological systems, if it can penetrate far enough or the emitter gets inside you. Specifically, knocking out atoms or adding a neutron here and there disrupts/alters the function of proteins and introduces errors in the DNA that may prove unfixable.
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