It is already being exposed by itself. However if further exposed externally the radiation induced damage will be more. Radiation will not vanish. Depending upon type of source only amount of radiation damage will vary. It depends on type and energy as well as dose. Generally sources are doubly encapsulated using SS etc.
Yes, that is possible, it is called Transmutation. The half-life of radioactive isotopes can be greatly reduced.
https://www.dpg-physik.de/veroeffentlichung/physik_konkret/pix/Physik_Konkret_14.pdf
https://www.wissenschaft-im-dialog.de/projekte/wieso/artikel/beitrag/gibt-es-ansaetze-die-halbwertszeit-von-atommuell-zu-verkuerzen-laesst-sich-atommuell-zur-energiege/
you have to change the relation of N and Z by nuclear reactions. But it will be difficult to make the target nuclei stable. You will just change the half lifes.
@Herbert: I would rather say, transmutations of long-lived radionuclides may lead to radionuclides with shorter half lives.
It is possible to induce such transmutations e.g. with high energetic protons of high intensity.
But also by transmutation, radiation will not "vanish", but the energy that is contained in the radionuclides will be released faster.
Nuclear reaction, change in the identity or characteristics of an atomic nucleus, induced by bombarding it with an energetic particle. The bombarding particle may be an alpha particle, a gamma-ray photon, a neutron, a proton, or a heavy ion. In any case, the bombarding particle must have enough energy to approach the positively charged nucleus to within range of the strong nuclear force.
Spallation, high-energy nuclear reaction in which a target nucleus struck by an incident (bombarding) particle of energy greater than about 50 million electron volts (MeV) ejects numerous lighter particles and becomes a product nucleus correspondingly lighter than the original nucleus. The light ejected particles may be neutrons, protons, or various composite particles equivalent to nuclei of hydrogen, helium, or lithium isotopes. The product nucleus is occasionally much lighter than the target nucleus; chlorine-38, for example, has been produced along with an assortment of neutrons, protons, and alpha particles (helium nuclei) by bombarding copper-63 with protons accelerated to 70 MeV.
https://www.britannica.com/science/nuclear-reaction
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