 Discovery Information
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| Who: G.T.Seaborg, S.G.Tompson, A. Ghiorso |
| When: 1949 |
| Where: United States |
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| Name Origin
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| After Berkeley the home town of the University of California. |
| "Berkelium" in different languages. |
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| Sources
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| Some compounds have been made and studied. Made by bombarding americium with alpha particles.
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| Uses
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| Berkelium has no known uses outside of basic research. |
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| History
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| Berkelium was first synthesized by Glenn T. Seaborg, Albert Ghiorso, Stanley G. Thompson, and Kenneth Street, Jr at the University of California, Berkeley in December 1949. The team used a
cyclotron to bombard a milligram-sized target of 241Am with alpha particles to produce 243Bk (half-life 4.5 hours) and two free neutrons. One of the longest lived isotopes of the element, 249Bk (half-life 330 days), was later synthesized by subjecting a 244Cm target with an intense beam of neutrons.
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| Notes
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| Weighable amounts of 249Bk (half-life 314 days) make it possible to determine some of its properties using macroscopic quantities.
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| Berkelium is a radioactive rare earth metal. It is named after the University of California at Berkeley (USA). Apparently, berkelium tends to accumulate in the skeletal system.
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| It is of no commercial importance and only a few of its compounds are known.
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| Hazards
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| Berkelium is radioactive. Like other actinoids, berkelium bio-accumulates in skeletal tissue.
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