Polonium

About Polonium

Polonium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898 – the first new element discovered through the reduction of uranium ores, or pitchblende. It is relatively scarce in the Earth, as only 100 micrograms of polonium can be produced from one ton of uranium ore. The discovery of this element was predicated on the finding that after removing uranium and thorium from ore, the resulting material was actually more radioactive than the uranium or thorium itself. Because of its scarcity, polonium is now produced primarily through neutron bombardment of bismuth (²⁰⁹Bi) in a nuclear reactor. This bombardment creates ²¹⁰Bi, and after decaying with a half-life of 5 days, and after decay, the resulting material is left as ²¹⁰Po. Like many other radioactive elements, ²¹⁰Po is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators and had a hand in the Manhattan Project. Along with beryllium, polonium was one of the key ingredients in the detonator for the plutonium bomb, “Fat Man”.

Additional applications of polonium include its use as a characteristic neutron source, and use in antistatic devices for industry. When rolling paper, wire or sheet metal, static electricity is often generated. A particle emitter such as polonium is often present in specifically designed brushes to minimize this static electricity, though industry has mostly replaced polonium with less harmful beta particle emitters. Special care must be taken with industrial processes when using polonium in this fashion. Additionally, polonium is utilized in applications with comparable necessities, for example: brushes to remove dust from photographic film and camera lenses. Because of its short half-life, these industrial tools need to be replaced on a regular basis. Traces of ²¹⁰Po can often be found in cigarettes, agricultural phosphate fertilizers, seafood, and even in trace amounts in indoor air. Of the 15,000-22,000 estimated lung cancer deaths in the United States every year attributed to radon, polonium is present in (and presumed to be the cause of) the majority of these cases.

Polonium, a metalloid, can readily create compounds with many other elements; however, most all polonium compounds are synthetically created with little applicability outside of the scientific community. Polonium has 33 isotopes observed in total, all of which are radioactive. The most stable isotope is ²⁰⁹Po with a half-life of 103 years, which then decays into lead through alpha decay. However, the most common isotopes of polonium are found widespread throughout Earth’s biosphere (in trace amounts), and is part of the naturally-occurring uranium decay chain.