#transuranic elements

Glenn Seaborg – Scientist of the Day

Glenn Seaborg, an American nuclear chemist, was born Apr. 19, 1912. In February of 1941, Seaborg led the team that discovered plutonium.

In Adventure Comics # 245, 1958, in a story called The Mystery of Monster X Superboy battles a kaiju that is not only gigantic, super strong and can fly, but has the weird ability to turn anything into a pure form of one of the elements depending on which one of its pinchers it uses to touch the object.

Above Superboy gives the lowdown about this and says that kryptonite is included.

That being the case can we then surmise that the real identity of kryptonite is a stable isotope of either americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium or fermium?

My money is on americium because that would be the most ironic.

“These cracks serve as a way for dust to get out into the environment. Birds fly in, get sprinkled with dust, and then fly out, carrying the contamination great distances. Such vectors are minor, however. But if one of the large, unstable objects inside—such as the 200-ton core cover that was blown on its side and hangs over the empty reactor vault—falls, it would raise a significant cloud of radioactive dust that could drift out into the environment.

“The cracks also allow precipitation to get inside. In the early postdisaster period, the FCMs [Fuel-Containing Materials] were hot and glass-like, so the water merely evaporated on contact. But now that the FCMs have cooled, the water no longer evaporates. Shelter experts—and an entire interdisciplinary institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences is devoted to Shelter science—estimate that there are now from 2,000 to 3,000 cubic meters of water inside the structure. In comparison, an Olympic-sized pool holds 4,000 cubic meters.

“This ‘unit water,’ as it is known, affects electrical and diagnostic systems, corrodes metals, and deteriorates concrete. In the winter it freezes, cracking FCMs, and creating dust. Most dangerously, it also leaches out water-soluble forms of enriched uranium and transuranic elements such as plutonium and then trickles and flows into the reactor’s basements, where it is ankle-deep in places. And the amount of transuranic elements in it is increasing with time. This means that the water poses a nuclear risk.

“In contrast to fission products such as cesium-137 and strontium-90 that are merely radioactive, transuranic elements such as uranium and plutonium are also capable of fission. Since water is a moderator, slowing neutrons so that they are more likely to hit other atomic nuclei in a chain reaction, the transuranic soup accumulating in the bowels of the reactor poses the risk of starting an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

“This is why pumping that radioactive water out for processing is a top priority. It is also a huge undertaking. Although the plant has facilities for processing liquid waste created in the course of normal reactor operations, it is not suited for the dangerous job of removing the transuranic elements in the unit water. The problem is that when radioactive materials are separated from water, they are usually concentrated to take up less space for storage. But concentrating transuranic elements could create a critical mass that will sustain fission. So the decontamination facility must somehow ensure that such accumulations do not occur.

“I swept my arm towards the Shelter, ‘So will it ever be clean?’

“‘A green field?’ Goloskokov smiled and shook his head. ‘I doubt it. You see, the Shelter Object itself is radioactive waste that should be processed and safely stored.’

“Goloskokov laughed at the notion of such a mind-boggling task. ‘We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of tons. That is more radioactive waste than exists in the entire world! Disposing of it is simply unrealistic.’”

Glenn Seaborg – Scientist of the Day

Glenn Seaborg, an American nuclear chemist, died Feb. 25, 1999, at age 86 (first image).

Nobody asked me, but here’s some halfway realistic suggestions for what to name Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118. 

Z=113: Japanium, or something along those lines.  This is the only element discovered in Japan, and it might be years or even decades before they get another one.  One of the traditions in the naming of the transuranic elements is to use geographic locations relevant to the discovery.  Thus Americium, Californium, Berkelium, Dubnium, etc.  More specific locales could be used for future Japanese discoveries, but I think they should start by naming this one after the entire country. 

Z=115: Joliotium, after Frederic (1900-58) and Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956).  The Joliot-Curies continued the work of Irene’s parents, and they eventually discovered artificial radioactivity.  Up to that point, all the radioactive substances known to science were naturally occurring elements like uranium and its decay products.  The Joliot-Curies found that you could bombard aluminum with alpha particles from a naturally radioactive source, and convert the aluminum into a radioactive isotope of phosphorus.  This was important for a number of reasons.  First, it showed that the alchemical concept of transmutation was actually possible.  Second, it opened up a new front in the growing field of radiochemistry and nuclear physics.  Third, it revealed a way to generate new kinds of radioactive materials, giving doctors a wider range of options for radiotherapy.  Scientists knew that radium could be effective against cancerous tumors, but radium is very rare, and it has a long half-life and the body has a hard time getting rid of it.  Phosphorus-30, on the other hand, could be manufactured at will, and it has a short half-life, and the body can excrete it just like the usual atoms of phosphorus-31.  Fourth, the Joliet-Curie’s discovery is the basic principle behind the synthesis of super-heavy elements.  I suggest using 115 for the name because the Joliet-Curie’s discovery involved synthesizing radioactive isotopes of nitrogen and phosphorus, and Element 115 occupies the same column on the periodic table. 

Z=117: Paynium, after Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), British-American astrophysicist who first determined what stars are made out of.  Payne’s career paved the way for women in astronomy and astronomy as a science in general.   This would continue a tradition of naming elements after important physicists like Copernicus, as well as women in science like Lise Meitner and Marie Curie.  I know, I know, she didn’t write the Discworld novels or Triple H’s theme song, but on the plus side she figured out what the universe is made out of, so you know.