Americium
Pure americium has a silvery and white luster . At room temperature it slowly tarnishes in dry air. It is more silvery than plutonium or neptunium and apparently more malleable than neptunium or uranium . Alpha emission from 241 Am is approximately 3.5 times that of 226 radium . 241 Am
Curium
The isotope curium-248 has been synthesized only in milligram quantities, but curium-242 and curium-244 are made in gram amounts, which allows for the determination of some of the element's properties. Curium-244 can be made in quantity by subjecting plutonium to neutron bombardment. Curium
Plutonium
Plutonium is the heaviest naturally occurring or primordial element . The most stable isotope of plutonium is plutonium-244 , with a half-life of about 80 million years, long enough to be found in trace quantities in nature. [ 3 ] The most important isotope of plutonium is plutonium-239
Timeline of United States discoveries
With an emphasis of discoveries in the fields of astronomy , physics , chemistry , medicine , biology , geology , paleontology , and archaeology , United States citizens acclaimed in their professions have contributed much. For example, the “ Bone Wars ,” beginning in 1877 and ending in
Cold War nuclear legacies
Part of a series on the Cold War Origins of the Cold War World War II War Conferences Eastern Bloc Iron Curtain Cold War (1947–1953) Cold War (1953–1962) Cold War (1962–1979) Cold War (1979–1985) Cold War (1985–1991) This article may need to be
Californium
Californium is one of the few transuranium elements that have practical applications. These are application that take advantage of the property of certain isotopes of californium to emit neutrons . For example, californium can be used for starting up nuclear reactors , and also as a source
Nuclear reprocessing
Despite the energy and waste disposal benefits obtainable through nuclear reprocessing, reprocessing has been politically controversial because of the potential to contribute to nuclear proliferation , the potential vulnerability to nuclear terrorism , and because of its high cost compared
Nuclear fuel cycle
The nuclear fuel cycle , also called nuclear fuel chain , is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the front end , which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the service period in which the fuel is used during reactor operation
Neptunium
At least three times discoveries of the element 93 were falsely reported, as bohemium , ausonium in 1934 and then sequanium in 1939. Neptunium (named for the planet Neptune , the next planet out from Uranus , after which uranium was named) was discovered by Edwin McMillan and Philip
