Element · Layer 0, Atomic number 97
Berkelium
A synthetic radioactive metal named after Berkeley, made in tiny amounts and used mainly as a target for creating heavier elements.
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About
Berkelium is a radioactive metal that does not occur in nature. Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso and Glenn Seaborg first made it in 1949 at Berkeley by firing alpha particles at americium, and named it after their city, just as terbium, above it, was named after Ytterby.
Only tiny amounts have ever been produced, mostly in the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge in Tennessee. It has no everyday uses. Its main job is as raw material for making heavier elements. In 2009, Oak Ridge produced about 22 milligrams of berkelium-249, which was shipped to Russia and bombarded with calcium to create tennessine, element 117. Berkelium-249 also decays into californium.
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