is there any way to stop radioactivity? can u think of some?

Answer 1

Water will moderate (reduce the energy of) neutrons but will not block them, boron compounds absorb neutrons, but then undergo gamma decay which leaves you with a need to shield gamma photons.

For any sort of charged particle radiation you have a choice of a simple metal target (but you can get into Xray secondary emmission problems at above 50Kev of so), or you can divert the charged stuff with powerful electric or magnetic fields (at least in theory).

The real problem comes down to Gamma, Xray & Neutron as the three that are a serious problem to shield without massive structures.

A layered construction is probably the best approach if you are mass or volume limited, start with a thin metal (something that will not suffer neutron activation too horribly) for the charged stuff, then water or a dense plastic (lots of hydrogen to moderate the neutrons) borating this will make it double as a decent neutron shield, then lead or concrete to stop the gamma (incident and generated by boron decay) and Xrays (incident and charged particle impacts on the shielding structure) .

Obviously if you know the type and energy spectrum of the incident radiation then some layers can be left out.

Note that the best you can do for the EM stuff (gamma and Xray) is to reduce it to insignifigant levels, you will not stop it all!
For this reason there are standard tables giving the thickness of various materials required to drop the intensity of the incident radiation to 50% at various energy levels. Going from there to any other attenuation factor is a simple excersise in algebra.

Regards, Dan.

Answer 2

A company called Nuclear Solutions used to exist (recently) and they would send high energy electron beams into the nucleii of SOME radioactive isotopes. This would cause a nuclear reaction to form a more stable, thus less radioactive, isotope.

Can't tell you the details, I'm assuming they weren't lying since they were commerically available. And it only stops some radioactive isotopes from emitting (or emitting as much).

Otherwise you need shielding: usually higher z (atomic number) is better: lead, gold osmium.

Gadolinium seems to have a high cross section for beta particles.

Check out how Hybrid Plastics uses this in their POSS material.

Answer 3

One cannot stop radioactivity, per se. This is because it is randomly given off by unstable isotopes. Isotopes are atoms that have the same number of protons and electrons, but not neutrons. For example, Carbon-14 is an isotope of Carbon(-12).
However, there are ways to protect something from the effects of radioactivity.
Paper will stop α (alpha) decay, which is just two protons and two neutrons -- the nucleus of a helium atom.
Thick aluminium foil should stop β± (beta) decay, β+ being a positron and neutrino emission, β- being an electron and antineutrino emission.
Very thick lead may not stop γ (gamma) decay, which is the emission of very high-energy waves.
There are many more modes of radioactive decay, many of which are mentioned in the link below.

Answer 4

What do you mean, "stop radioactivity"? Do you mean to render a radioactive material inert? Or do you mean that you want to block radioactive emissions (radiation)?

There are two ways to render a radioactive material inert (non-radioactive), and both require you to change the very nature of the material. For example, you can make (we'll use uranium, but any radioactive element will do) uranium inert (non-radioactive) in one of two ways:

1) Put your uranium in a particle accelerator and bombard it with sub-atomic particles to cause it to react (most likely undergo fission) to change it into a non-radioactive element.
2) Let the uranium undergo lots and lots of half-lives so that it decays into lead or some other inert element. This may require billions of years.

If you mean that you want to block radioactive particles and radiations, then it gets a bit trickier, depending upon just what radiation you are trying to block:

1) Alpha particles can be stopped by a piece of paper.
2) Beta particles can be stopped by a sheet of aluminum foil, or a thick book
3) Gamma radiations requires lots of thick, dense material as shielding, such as lead or large amounts of dirt or concrete.
4) Neutrons require lots of light material containing lots of hydrogen atoms, such as water or wax, for shielding.

In all cases, the inverse square law applies, so the farther away you are from the source of the radiation, the lower the intensity, and the easier it is to block/shield.

Answer 5

Burial. The US buries all of its radioactive waste in a gigantic tunnel in the rockies. Unfortunately, the half-life of the waste is many thousands of years, which means the radioactivity will last a very long time. Luckily its underground...

Answer 6

Real world? no. In theory--sure. Chill your radioactive material to absolute zero where all movement ceases. Bose-Einstein Condensate out of a radioactive material? Don't know--not that smart.

(I assuming you didn't just mean block it--nevermind if you did.)

Answer 7

as already stated the word blocking is a bit vague as most of us know, lead will block x-ray and almost anything will interact as radoiactive material transfers its energy exiting other atoms and particle whenever collisions occor

Answer 8

Lead shielding.

Answer 9

Send it on the M25 in rush hour

Answer 10

switch of your hi-fi or listen to a cd