question:  How does Eddie’s interest in radioactivity affect the story’s plot?
context: Eddie found it easy to believe the stories he had heard about his father being an outstanding football player in his time. Still, one clue is as good as another when it comes to hunting uranium ore, I guess. It could start cavities. In fact, anything having to do with atomic science excited him. You couldn’t have a father who was head of the atomic-science department at Oceanview College without picking up a little knowledge along the way. Eddie knew that a radioisotope was a material which had been “cooked” in an atomic reactor until it was “hot” with radioactivity. When carefully controlled, the radiation stored up in such isotopes was used in many beneficial ways. One reason for asking that particular question was to keep from prying deeper into the subject of the radioisotope. Much of his father’s work at Oceanview College was of a secret nature. His father usually volunteered any information he wanted known, so Eddie stuck to questions which could and would be answered. At the speed atomic science is moving today, we simply can’t afford to waste time. Besides, there were plenty of other places around the outskirts of Oceanview where likely looking rock formations invited search with a Geiger counter. Eddie didn’t figure a girl would make a very good uranium prospecting partner, but most of the fellows he knew were away at camp, or vacationing with their folks, or something like that. The taffy-colored cocker spaniel yipped wildly over his freedom, racing back and forth as Eddie started down the street. 20 Eddie went inside and followed Teena to the kitchen. They had been ever since Eddie’s family had moved to Oceanview and his father had become head of the college’s atomic-science department. Teena’s father was chief engineer for the Acme Aviation Company, one of the coast town’s largest manufacturing concerns. 22 “Oh, yes, it’s fun, Mother,” Teena replied, wrapping wax paper around a sandwich.
output:  It provides basic subject matter for the story and informs the brunt of Eddie’s characterization.
options:  It causes major holes for the reader when Eddie doesn’t explain his scientific jargon.  It provides a basic subject matter for Eddie to use to get closer to Teena.  It provides basic subject matter for the story and informs the brunt of Eddie’s characterization.  It is used as a way of putting Eddie in contact with the story’s antagonist: Mr. Ross