Hmm, why not look here first:
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/pubs/citguide.html
"Radon comes from the natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air you breathe."
"Radon is estimated to cause about 14,000 deaths per year"
This should some idea of the magnitude of naturally occurring radioactive material.

I hope that you are a non-smoker. ;-)
<snip>
"I do not fully understand 'breeder' reactor operation or the reason why the reactor 'fuel' is more radioactive after it has been in the reactor. Could you explain it please."

I don't fully understand it either. But I do know that you need reactor grade material (or something that makes a lot of neutrons and/or other high energy particles) in order to have breeder reactor. I know that with a breeder reactor you can make weapon grade material. I also know you can make reactor grade material. And that there are different types of breeder reactors.
<snip>

"As I understand it, the Sun has a greater escape velocity than Earth and there are magnetic fields associated with the Sun, yet it is able to expel massive quantities of energetic particles into space . Why could this not happen on Earth?"
It could (see above- Earth isn't a source of high energy particles)
I thought that nuclear fission ‘DID’ contain high energy particles.

Certainly, it does. But this is a "problem" to do with degree and scale.
If we were continously by the hour exploding nukes in the atmosphere, then there would a significant amount of high energy particles being emitted by Earth (but not anywhere close to what being emitted by the Sun, but maybe close to number high energy particles are entering Earth from the Sun). In other words if you measured the high energy particles being emitting from the Earth, +99.9% would not be from anything humans did or even a significant level from "natural source" from the Earth. The source would be from the Sun and rest of the universe (exploding stellar objects) "bouncing off" the earth.

So in other words, the camel CAN carry one more straw? That is comforting to know. However. I am going to dig for more 'facts', such as 'how strong' is the 'camel' and how much of a load it is allready carrying.
Thank you for the responses it has been an enlightening experience. :-)