Magnetics & radioactive

[Fatboy]

if placed near a coil of wire and possibly a iron core, would a radioactive substance (plutonium, uranium) induce a current in the wire? or any kind of transfer apart from heat?

[jake-the-peg]

Kind of but it will be incredibly small.

Current is charge (coulombs) per second, now a beta particle has a charge of 1.6 x 10-19 coulombs so you need 1000000000000000000 a second to get just over an amp as your primary current to induce in your secondary.

This is about 20 times the radiation released in Chernobyl (4 x 1018 becquerels)