What is it called when something loses radioactivity?
All radioactive substances are unstable and suffer radioactive decay. The resulting product is either another radioactive substance which will decay further or a stable (non-radioactive) substance. Each type of radioactive atom has a given probability of deacying, but it is impossible to say when this will actually happen. When lots of atoms are together, statistics applies meaning that (according to the number of atoms present), a certain number of them will decay in a given time. The time it takes for half of the atoms initially present to decay is called the “half-life” of the radioactive substance. When the same period of time ellapses again, the number of radioactive atoms will have halfed again (1/4 of the number initially present), and so on. It would take forever for the sample to become completely non-radioactive. But its radioacive emmissions will reduce to half for every half-life time ellapsed. Radioactive “fuel” is a substance (normally uranium) which has been concentrated
