What is Neptunium?
Neptunium is a metal chemical element that is classified between the actinide elements in the periodic table. It is a very rare nature existing only in trace amounts in ores that contain uranium. All Neptunium used in research is produced artificially, through a neutron bombing of elements such as uranium. Because this element is radioactive and could be potentially used to create nuclear weapons, access to it is limited in some areas of the world. It is also naturally radioactive, as well as its isotopes. The element is also highly towing. It is identified with the atomic number 93, which makes it the first of the transuranic elements and its symbol are NP.
Transuranic elements are elements with atomic numbers higher than uranium. All these elements are a radioactive, sex -short half of life that make them rare or non -existent, even if traces of their presence can be detected. These elements must be created synthetically for scientific study and are very nestaBlile, which makes research demanding.
Credit for the discovery of Neptunia is generally given to Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. They discovered an element in 1940 and named it for the Neptune planet because it was followed by uranium on the periodic table, and Uranus was named for the Uranus planet. Another element in this series Plutonium is monitored by this name scheme.
Because this element is radioactive, it represents health risks because the exposure or ingestion of this element could cause damage to radiation from a slight illness to death, depending on the exposure. However, because this element is so unlikely that the average individuals and people who deal with Neptunius will deal with it in such a small amount that the risk is relatively low. Scientists who work with radioactive elements observe basic security measures in their processingIt and restrict access to elements that could be potentially used in high -profit nuclear weapons for national security reasons.