1945

Promethium

• Element 61 couldn’t be found in nature,
• but scientists working for the Manhattan Project
• had plenty of unnatural materials at hand.
• The purpose of the reactor at Oak Ridge
• was to irradiate uranium slugs to produce plutonium.
• A ton of uranium slugs from the reactor
• went to the chemical-separation building every three days.
• After separating the plutonium, scientists found
• they had created many other radioactive materials,
• including an element with an atomic weight of 61
• that Coryell’s wife suggested naming after Prometheus.

Atomic number 61

• Promethium-147 emits beta particles;
• it doesn’t emit alpha or gamma rays
• so it’s relatively safe,
• used in luminous paint,
• in betavoltaic devices for spacecraft and pacemakers,
• and for measuring the thickness of materials.

No mineral contains promethium

• Chemists in the 1920s
• wasted their time and reputation trying
• to isolate element 61 from rare-earth minerals.
• It wasn’t there.
• A gap in the table
• between neodymium and samarium
• might have suggested it would be difficult to isolate,
• but it wasn’t there.

Daring and danger

• He stole fire from Mount Olympus
• and gave it to mankind.
• So Zeus has him chained to a rock
• where an eagle eats his heart.