Berkelium ( /bərˈkiːliəm/ bər-KEE-lee-əm, less commonly /ˈbɜrkliəm/ BURK-lee-əm), is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Bk and atomic number 97, a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the University of California Radiation Laboratory where it was discovered in December 1949. This was the fifth transuranium element discovered after neptun...
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Berkelium ( /bərˈkiːliəm/ bər-KEE-lee-əm, less commonly /ˈbɜrkliəm/ BURK-lee-əm), is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Bk and atomic number 97, a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the University of California Radiation Laboratory where it was discovered in December 1949. This was the fifth transuranium element discovered after neptunium, plutonium, curium and americium.
The major isotope of berkelium, berkelium-249, is synthesized in minute quantities in dedicated high-flux nuclear reactors, mainly at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA, and at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Russia. The production of the second-important isotope berkelium-247 involves the irradiation of the rare synthetic isotope curium-244 with high-energy alpha particles.
Just over one gram of berkelium has been produced in the United States since 1967. There...
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