Curium Atomic number 96 No curium Commentary

Berkeley, Chicago—Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Albert Ghiorso elements

Curium

• Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, and Albert Ghiorso
• bombarded plutonium-239 oxide with helium nuclei.
• They separated curium-242 and curium-240
• after dissolving the bombarded plutonium oxide in acids.

Atomic number 96

• Curium decays mainly
• by emitting alpha particles
• which has been used
• for X-ray spectrometers
• on Mars landers.

No curium

• The last primordial curium disappeared
• millions of years after our planet formed.
• So if you take a walk into the desert and find any curium,
• it will have come from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.
• Unless you take a swim in the pools that cool spent nuclear fuel,
• you won’t find any curium. None. No curium.
• If we were to end all nuclear power and nuclear weaponry,
• all the curium on Earth would eventually dissolve.