This element is one of many first made at UC Berkeley in the fifties . Unlike most manufactured element , though , this one is actually useful . This is how it starts up nuclear reactions .
Researchers first made atomic number 98 in 1950 . They did n’t make much . The first cube of the element had sides27 nanometers long . A human haircloth is80,000 micromillimetre thick . The method acting used to make atomic number 98 involved bombarding curium-242 with alpha particles ( helium-4 nuclei ) using the cyclotron . While that was good enough to prove the element could exist , it was n’t good enough to make a useful sample of it .
Usefulness came later , when bombarding plutonium-239 with undivided neutrons produced microgram - sized samples . More important than the increment in size was the variety in isotopes . former experiments produced californium-245 , which has a seven arcminute half animation . Californium-252 , produced during the former experimentation , has a half life of aroundtwo and a half class . During much of that time , a microgram - sized sample distribution is afford off 170,000,000 neutrons per minute .
This give it a very useful subject matter . Nuclear reactor work by getting neutrons shot into them , which causes some of the atoms to burst , giving off more neutrons and perpetuate the response . The renowned breathless carbon rod can be used to soak up those supernumerary neutrons , slowing the chemical reaction down . When the reaction catch too slow , though , you need a neutron source to start it up . This is where californium-252 comes in . It ’s a petite , in force neutron emitter that can jump - start out a atomic reactor .
ChemistryPhysicsScience
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