Polonium Facts
Polonium Facts
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| Interesting Polonium Facts: |
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| In 1898, Marie Curie discovered polonium while trying to determine the cause of pitchblende's radioactivity. |
| When the uranium and thorium were removed from the sample of pitchblende, Curie and her husband Pierre discovered that it somehow became even more radioactive. |
| It was the first element she ever discovered. |
| Polonium was named after her native country of Poland in an attempt to bring attention to its lack of independence. |
| Opinion varies on whether polonium is a metal or metalloid element. |
| Historically, polonium played an important military role, as it was crucial to the design of the Fat Man bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. |
| Information on polonium and its weapon uses was not de-classified until after World War II and on into the 1960s. |
| The Manhattan Project also conducted human experiments on polonium during the 1940s. |
| Gamma spectroscopy is used to detect the radioactive isotopes in polonium, as well as their concentrations and positions. |
| Polonium is an extremely rare element due to the extremely short half-life of its isotopes. |
| It is found in uranium ore at a concentration of 0.1 milligrams per metric ton of ore. |
| The amounts found in the Earth's crust are not considered to be detrimental. |
| Natural polonium is hard to extract. |
| The largest amount ever produced from natural products came from refining 37 tons of radium residue, which yielded only nine milligrams of polonium. |
| Most polonium is now produced by bombarding bismuth with neutrons or protons. |
| There are thirty-three known isotopes of polonium. |
| All of the isotopes are radioactive. |
| The most abundant of the radioisotopes is Po-210, which has a half-life of only 138 days. |
| Another, Po-210, is an alpha emitter, and one gram of the isotope will spontaneously heat up in air to a temperature of more than 500 degrees Celsius. |
| This reaction generates nearly 140 watts of power, making polonium useful for thermoelectric generators. |
| These generators are vital for keeping components warm enough during space exploration. |
| Polonium was used in the Lunokhod 1 and Lonkhod 2 lunar rovers, as well as in other satellites. |
| Polonium also has applications in industry where static electricity must be eliminated. |
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