only nonliving things are radioactive?
137778
Not even remotely true.\n\nAll things are radiocative. The only thing in this universe that isn't radioactive is the small amount of hydrogen that scientists have refined to not be radiocative.\n\nThis "radioactivity of everything" is what we call the background radiation level. It varies from place to place but everywhere has a background radiation level, and the insides of people or other organisms are no exception.\n\nPeople become radioactive simply because the food they eat is radioactive. The food is radiocative because the ground and air it came from is radiocative.\n\nThe ground is radioactive because the matter the Earth was made of came from a supernova. And supervova is just a really, really big atomic bomb.\n\nThe air is radioactive partly because of that supernova but mostly because the sun is also basically a really big nuclear bomb. On the ground we are protected from all the worst radaiation that bomb puts out. In the upper atmosphere the air is not protected. It gets zapped with masive amounts of radiation every day  and is fairly radioactive as a result.\n\nWhen plants take minerals out of the soil those minerals are slightly radioactive from the supernova that created the Earth. When plants take carbon out of the air that carbon is  radioactive from being zapped by nuclear radiatioon from the sun. When the plants use those things to build more plants the plants become radioactive. When animals eat the  radioactive plants and use that material to build animal bodies the animals become radicoative.\n\nAnd when people eat radiocative plants and animals our bodies become radiocative.\n\nEverything in the universe is radiocative, even us. The only thing that varies is how radioactive they are.
526111
Yes, one it is enriched and now radioactive because an atom has been split. I don't know the science. Two people still need to go in and get more uranium. There is a plan to bury it all in an abandoned mine, of limestone I believe to limit the leakage. The problem with burying it all in one place and setting up a perimmiter in this dead zone is that a) it will still spread/ leak. b) shipping stuff from all over the US to one place in the southwest is very risky. Now it is all required to stay on site at each nuclear plant in the special barrels. The plan for transport is very thourough but still not a pleasing idea. If a truck crashes/ terrorist/ whatever goes wrong you will severly contaminate a large area, 50 mile radius or more. \n\nWould you like to know the plan for shipment? Well here it is. First we've got super buckets to carry it in. Big red plastic looking capsules. We ran them over with a train. Didn't break. Was funny to see a huge red thing fly through the air though. Geographers used computer mapping to find routes that were the quickest but also went through the least populated areas. The final decision was based mainly on the least population and it doesn't travel through major cities. Many objected about going through suburban areas but in some cases there just wasn't enough farm land to pass through without having to make such a detour that it would take a long time and effect more population. The highways and streets it must pass through will be closed to traffic and the trucks will be escorted by military. If your local highway is closed for somereason chances are it's passing through your neighborhood.
303458
Yes.....sulphur is in its pure form is in the earths crust, and Radon is a noble gas, meaning it is completely unreactive and can only be found in its elemental form.  It is a radioactive gas and is found naturally occurring, especially in rural areas.  The south-west of England for example has high levels of Radon gas.
1099763
There are a few types of nuclear (or radioactive) waste:\n\nHigh-level waste (HLW) contains the fisson products and transuranic elements, this includes spent fuel rods (which can't be used due to buildup of poisons such as xenon and samarium) and processing waste.  \n\nLow-level waste (LLW) contains radioactive isotopes with very short half-lives, this waste includes things like clothing and office supplies from hospitals.  This material can be disposed of by combustion or burial.  \n\nTransuranic waste contains elements with higher atomic numbers than uranium, this material generally has a long half life.  \n\nFor more information on nuclear wastes, see:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste
139410
ignoring radioactivity(which deals with unstable isotopes) the elements are indestructible and will last forever.\nthe law of conservation of matter says matter can never be created nor destroyed.( we can destroy matter in nuclear bombs but otherwise...).\nAs long as atoms exist, which is forever, the periodic table will tell you what to expect.
970862
Sulfur is not radioactive. It is a nonmetal that takes 2 electrons to form a S-- ion. It does exist on its own in nature . It is found in the body in aminoacids.
410797
500 years ago, Paracelsus, an early chemist, doctor and alchemist (which, at the time, was still a going concern) wrote (in German):\n\n"Alle Ding' sind Gift und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, das ein Ding kein Gift ist."\n\nThis means:\n"All things are poison and nothing (is) without poison; only the dose makes that a thing is no poison." \n\nWhatever science may think of some of his stranger pursuits, the wisdom of this statement is undisputable.  Every substance will kill you if you ingest enough of it, even water.  (And, no, I'm not talking about drowning.)\n\nAny substance that can damage a DNA molecule can be a carcinogen.  This includes nearly every molecule, again, including water.  The only completely non-carcinogenic substances I can think of would be the noble gasses (helium, neon, etc.)  They are chemically inert and do not readily react with much of anything.  Even that's not completely safe because radon is a radioactive noble gas (so easily a carcinogen) and some of the others probably have radioactive isotopes.\n\nIt's worth noting that despite the earlier "answer", natural things are full of carcinogens.  Plants are filled with pesticides of their own creation.  Why not?  Plants don't like being eaten any more than you would.  Natural pesticides are simply the result of their evolution.  These pesticides are designed to, yes, KILL animals.  That includes you.  Of course, we don't eat the ones that have enough of those chemicals to kill us in the short term, and only a few of our foods (such as, I'm told, Okra, which supposedly has the highest levels of natural pesticides of any food regularly eaten by humans) have enough pesticides to be really worth avoiding.  Nonetheless, the chemicals aren't intended to be good for you and some of them do indeed contribute to cancer.\n\nFunny irony:  Plants grown "naturally" or "organically" have more natural pesticides than those grown by supposedly bad, unnatural modern techniques.  "Organically" grown plants are exposed to more insects, and the plants respond by pumping up excess carcinogens and other poisons into their tissues.  Plants protected by artificial, external pesticides have less trouble with pests, so don't produce as many poisons.  Guess what, you cannot wash off internal, natural pesticides like you can the artificial ones humans add.\n\nAgain, the dosage of these natural pesticides is still usually too small for concern.  Still, if you want my advice, avoid overpriced "organic" foods.\n\nRemember the Alar scare from quite a few years back?  Everyone worried about the Alar on apples being carcinogenic.  Everyone ignoring the plain fact that the supposedly dangerous aspect of Alar was that it broke down into unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH).  UDMH is found in much higher doses in supermarket mushrooms than found on treated apples.  The treated apples were banned, the mushrooms remain on the shelves to this day, protected by the strange and irrational sense of safety the phrase "all natural" gives to people.\n\nMind you, I'm not saying the mushrooms are dangerous.  They aren't.  Neither were the treated apples.  The dose makes the poison and neither has enough to worry about.  The news media likes scare stories, so it prints them without much regard for the facts of the issues.
254313
Non-living\n\nA virus is a submicroscopic obligatory parasitic particle that infects cells in biological organisms. Viruses are "non-living particles" that can only replicate when an organism reproduces the virulent RNA or DNA.
401290
Though considered nonliving they have some characteristics of living beings. They are composed of either DNA or RNA which is a biology subject. Besides they reproduce (though in living host cells) and also mutate. Also because they cause diseases.
1136316
There are no such things like nothing. Nothing is a human defentition of emptyness. Existence of nothing is already existence of something. The smallest part we know something like proton and photon but that what we know. I am sure there are even smaller parts that in time will discover.
9312
-All natural radiation is a level low enough to be safe.\n\nThis statement is bollocks. Natural radiation e.g. by Radon emitted from pitchblende will harm your body cells just as much as radiactives produced by human activities.\n\nEven sunlight (also "natural radiation") can be harmful...
858444
It means an element in which its atoms emit electromagnetig waves and particles Without the use of any medium. normaly radoiactive is liked to harm but since all radioactive material has harmfull efects to living organisims then it is true to link radioactivity with harm.
51633
The rate of radiation is determined by the isotopes involved.  No matter what elements, no matter what method of decay, only two things can lessen the effects of radiation.  One is shielding.  This is easier with alpha particles than with gamma rays.  The other is distance.  By doubling the distance from the radiation source, the amount of radiation is reduced to one fourth.\nWith time any specimen will have fewer atoms which are radioactive.  Eventually all radioactive specimens stop radiating (but this might take tens of hours or billions of years)
554348
goldwing doesn't know what he's taking about... Heavy water, which is distiguished by the presence of H-2, or Deuterium, is _not_ radioactive.  It is a stable isotope that does exist naturally (.015% from the table of nuclides), stable nuclei don't emit radioactive particles, radioactive particles are emitted as a means for an unstable nuclei to return to a stable form. The reason it is licensed is because heavy water can harm biogical systems, but not because of radiocativity, but rather because biological systems are quite sensitive to the solvent properties of water (which change when deuterium is substituted for natural hydrogen), given a human would have to drink pure heavy water for over two weeks before he/she became seriously ill, but it's a risk nonetheless.  Another reason that it is licensed for production is because a facility capable of seperating an isotope like H2 from natural hydrogen could potentially seperate another fissile isotope (U-235) from natural Uranium...
323090
Alpha, beta and gamma radiation is radioactive radiation. It is cause by unstable atoms "decaying" to become stable atoms. Alpha and beta partciles are Protons and Electrons respectively whilst gamma radiation is very very high frequency "electromagnetic radiation." \nNon radioactive radiation is sound, heat, light..
529462
Most scientists believe that viruses are not living.  They are classified as non-living particles.  There is a small faction who believe they may be alive however this is contentious.  \n\nThey do exhibit some signs of life such as reproducing, and moving but they do not breathe or respire, they don't consume and they don't excrete.
678665
Which isotope?\n\nThorium-232 has a half-life of 14 billion (14x109) years, and decays by alpha emission, with accompanying gamma radiation. Thorium-232 is the top of a long decay series that contains key radionuclides such as radium-228, its direct decay product, and radon-220. \n\nTwo other isotopes of thorium, which can be significant in the environment, are thorium-230 and thorium-228. Both belong to other decay series. They also decay by alpha emission, with accompanying gamma radiation, and have half-lives of 75,400 years and 1.9 years, respectively