Neptunium is a hard, silvery, ductile, radioactive actinide metal. This isotope, and the isotope neptunium-239, are also found in trace amounts in uranium ores due to neutron capture reactions and beta decay. The longest-lived isotope of neptunium, neptunium-237, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production. Neptunium has also been used in detectors of high-energy neutrons. While neptunium itself has no commercial uses at present, it is used as a precursor for the formation of plutonium-238, and in radioisotope thermal generators to provide electricity for spacecraft. The vast majority is generated as a by-product in conventional nuclear power reactors. Since then, most neptunium has been and still is produced by neutron irradiation of uranium in nuclear reactors. Abelson at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in 1940. It is radioactive, poisonous, pyrophoric, and capable of accumulating in bones, which makes the handling of neptunium dangerous.Īlthough many false claims of its discovery were made over the years, the element was first synthesized by Edwin McMillan and Philip H. The element occurs in three allotropic forms and it normally exhibits five oxidation states, ranging from +3 to +7. Neptunium metal is silvery and tarnishes when exposed to air. A neptunium atom has 93 protons and 93 electrons, of which seven are valence electrons. Its position in the periodic table just after uranium, named after the planet Uranus, led to it being named after Neptune, the next planet beyond Uranus. A radioactive actinide metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element. Neptunium is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93.
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