Polonium

Polonium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie along with radium in 1898. They found it while investigating radioactivity in Paris. When they discovered it, they wrote: “We thus believe that the substance that we have extracted from pitchblende contains a metal never known before, akin to bismuth in its analytic properties. If the existence of this new metal is confirmed, we suggest that it should be called polonium after the name of the country of origin of one of us.”

Polonium was named for Marie's birth country- Poland. At the time of polonium's discovery, the danger of working with radioactive things wasn't known. Because of this, their notes from their discoveries were so radioactive that they are currently stored in a lead box. Polonium is very dangerous and toxic. It is highly dangerous if swallowed or inhaled- and exposure to it increases chance of getting many different cancers.

Polonium, while dangerous, is actually quite rare. It is a silver/gray metal. It is often used in products to get rid of static electricity in certain processes and is in rolling paper, wire and sheet metal. However beta decay sources are more often used for this because they are less toxic.

Thorium

Thorium is an element found in human and animal bones- but however, it is very radioactive and chemically reactive. It is relatively soft, and is silvery-white in color. It has a black oxide, but tarnishes for up to MONTHS before reaching that stage.

 In the future, there are plans for fueling nuclear reactors with thorium. Not only is thorium more abundant on Earth than uranium, but 1 ton of mined thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of mined uranium.

It is used in heat resistant ceramics and also in the aerospace industry along with magnesium and other alloys.

Protactinium

Hey, sorry about not blogging for awhile! I was sick last week and did not get around to my minerals, but now that I am better, here is a mineral!

Protactinium is a shiny and silvery radioactive metal. It tarnishes very slowly in the air. It is one of the rarest and most expensive naturally occurring elements, costing $280 per gram. The most that has been found so far was 125 grams in Great Britain in 1961- it was found in radioactive nuclear waste. Even so, protactinium is radioactive on its own and because of that must be handled with extreme delicacy and care.

It is found in many uranium ores, and can also be obtained by extracting it from uranium. So far it has only been used in research projects.