Radiochemia u progu drugiego stulecia

The perspective for radiochemistry one hundred years after its birth has been discussed in connection with the key role of this discipline in the development of science creating the modern world in the first half of the XX century. The recession in nuclear sciences, observed in the last three decades, seems to be coming to the end. Greatly intensified work focused on the treatment and safe disposal of nuclear wastes and on reduction of radioactive pollution of the environment, the rapidly developing nuclear medicine, recent discoveries in nuclear chemistry and physics are a challenge for radiochemists, and open a broad field for research.