supernova - Fusion of elements inside heavy stars

You are correct to say that all the heavier elements in the universe were formed in stars.

Stars like the sun fuse hydrogen into helium. When they get older they can fuse the helium into carbon (it actually takes 3 helium to make one carbon). Larger stars can fuse carbon into oxygen, and neon and elements in the first half of the periodic table.

When the star runs out of fuel, the outer layers are gently ejected in what is called a planetary nebula (though it has directly to do with actual planets). The ejected gas is enriched with the heavier elements that the star has fused. The heavier elements in the planetary nebula mix with the hydrogen and helium gas in outer space and can later go on to be found in new stars. Most of the carbon and oxygen and nitrogen on earth was formed by this process.

Very large stars will fuse all the way up to iron, and then collapse in a supernova. This releases a very large amount of energy, some of which is used to form elements heavier than iron. All the heavier elements (copper gold, uranium for example) are formed in supernovae.

The supernovae explosion distributes these elements back into space, mixed in with the debris from the star, as time goes on, and stars are born and die, the gas in space gets enriched with more and more heavier elements

So the heavier elements are formed in the cores of stars, and are stored there until the star dies, when some of the star's atoms are released into space. The heavier elements are not "radiated out" of the star, until the star dies. Some stars die in a supernova explosian, but most have a more peaceful death in a planetary nebula.