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Irradiation causes the copper itself to become radioactive. The copper atoms get hit by the radiation which causes some of them to change in radioactive isotope
by Bootvis 13y ago
Irradiation causes the copper itself to become radioactive. The copper atoms get hit by the radiation which causes some of them to change in radioactive isotopes.
- tanzam75 13y agoAs I said, it depends on the particular circumstances. For example, suppose it captures a neutron. Copper has two natural isotopes, copper-63 and copper-65. Copper-64 has a half-life of hours, and decays into Nickel-64 or Zinc-64, both of which are stable and occur in nature. Copper-66 has a half-life of minutes, and decays into Zinc-66, which is stable and occurs in nature. But maybe it didn't capture a neutron. And there might be impurities in the copper that are dangerous when irradiated. Or maybe it was physically contaminated with dangerous isotopes of another element. Just saying that it was "irradiated" doesn't give us enough information to tell what actually happened.
- hristov 13y agoUsually it is bad news. In practice no metal is pure metal, so if you have copper you are likely to have a bunch of lead atoms that easily get into radioactive isotopes. So yes, it depends on the circumstances, but it is very very likely that you end up with radioactive metal.