Promethium is a chemical element with the symbol Pm and atomic number 61.
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12 Facts About Promethium
2.
Promethium is one of only two radioactive elements that are followed in the periodic table by elements with stable forms, the other being technetium.
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3.
Promethium was first produced and characterized at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1945 by the separation and analysis of the fission products of uranium fuel irradiated in a graphite reactor.
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4.
Promethium belongs to the cerium group of lanthanides and is chemically very similar to the neighboring elements.
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5.
Promethium is the only lanthanide and one of only two elements among the first 83 that has no stable or long-lived isotopes.
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6.
Promethium can be formed in nature as a product of spontaneous fission of uranium-238.
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7.
Promethium has been identified in the spectrum of the star HR 465 in Andromeda; it has been found in HD 101065 and HD 965.
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8.
Promethium was first produced and characterized at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1945 by Jacob A Marinsky, Lawrence E Glendenin and Charles D Coryell by separation and analysis of the fission products of uranium fuel irradiated in the graphite reactor; however, being too busy with military-related research during World War II, they did not announce their discovery until 1947.
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9.
Promethium sample produced was used to measure a few of the metal's properties, such as its melting point.
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10.
Promethium can be either recovered from the byproducts of uranium fission or produced by bombarding Nd with neutrons, turning it into Nd which decays into Pm through beta decay with a half-life of 11 days.
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11.
Promethium-147 is produced in large quantities by bombarding uranium-235 with thermal neutrons.
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12.
Promethium is used to measure the thickness of materials by evaluating the amount of radiation from a promethium source that passes through the sample.
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