Video Transcript
Which of the following most
correctly defines radioactive contamination? (A) An object containing unstable
atoms emits nuclear radiation. (B) An object containing unstable
atoms moves to a place where no other objects contain unstable atoms.
To answer this question, we must
remember what it means to say that an object is radioactive as opposed to
radioactively contaminated. Recall that an object is considered
to be radioactive if it contains unstable atoms which can emit nuclear
radiation. Also remember that radioactive
contamination occurs when a radioactive substance is mixed with a nonradioactive
substance.
Let’s look at the following
example. In this example, we can see that
the beaker containing the green substance contains unstable atoms. The blue substance does not contain
unstable atoms, but it has been mixed with the green substance, which does contain
unstable atoms. It is accurate to say that the blue
substance has been radioactively contaminated by the green substance. Another way to phrase the same
thing is with option (B). An object containing unstable atoms
moves to a place where no other objects contain unstable atoms.
In our example, the object that
contains unstable atoms is the green substance, and the object that does not contain
unstable atoms is the blue substance. The correct answer is option
(B).
