Radiochemistry is the
chemistry of
radioactive materials, where radioactive
isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and
chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads to a substance being described as being
inactive as the isotopes are
stable). Much of radiochemistry deals with the use of
radioactivity to study ordinary
chemical reactions. This is very different from
radiation chemistry where the radiation levels are kept too low to influence the chemistry.