Oh, your sentence explained to me something I had never understood. Alpha radiation is harmful because the helium nucleus acquires an electronic, becomes helium that tries to escape? I always thought it was just the impact of the particle that caused damage but now I understand better, thanks!
AFAIK, alpha radiation is not a big problem at all. But if it's that bad, you can put a layer of paper sheets (or metal film, or whatever) on the inside of the reactor to absorb it.
Again AFAIK, all the issues are caused by neutron radiation.
My understanding aligns with yours. These are probably highly energetic Alpha particles that embed in metals but I always thought they were of little concern compared to the problems of decay due to neutron bombardment.
