I've tried to look up information about this in various places, but not much out there actually addresses this specifically.

And that is:
>How does radiation transfer from one thing to another
>What regulates the speed at which the radiation transfers
>What determines how long that object or thing stays radiated

In other words, if you go to Chernobyl, you may stumble on something like an old fork as I did when I went on a guided tour there. The fork that I saw was still significantly radiated. Why?

What keeps the radiation contained or stuck to that fork, and how long will it remain stuck in or around that fork? Is there any way to rid the fork of his "radiation"?

I've tried looking for books and publications that address the transference of radiation and all I ever seem to find are highly complex extremely difficult to understand Nuclear Physics publications that I simply don't have enough knowledge to understand.