Radioactive source materials formable into various shapes

An integral source material having at least one nuclide that is activated by exposure to radiation, the nuclide is a chemically bound constituent of the backbone of a polymer of the integral source material, wherein the integral source material is configured before activation to provide a device wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of test-objects, rectangular and disc shaped sources configured to radiate an area, radioactive enclosures, flood sources, nuclear imaging devices, shrouds and excitation sources for energy-dispersive fluorescence analysis, wherein the device comprises a checkerboard comprising alternating active and inactive squares, the active squares containing the integral source material.