What is Americium?
Americium is a man-made radioactive chemical. Americium has no naturally occurring or stable isotopes. Two important isotopes of americium are americium 241 (241Am) (read as americium two-forty-one) and 243Am. Both isotopes have the same chemical behavior in the environment and the same chemical effects on your body. 241Americium is used in ionization smoke detectors. There is no broad commercial use for 243Am. Nuclear reactors, nuclear explosions, or the radioactive transformation of plutonium can produce both 241Am and 243Am. These isotopes transform by giving off alpha radiation and turning into radionuclides of other elements. The half-life of a radioactive material is the time it takes for half of the material to give off its radiation. The half-life of 241Am is 432 years and that of 243Am is 7,370 years.
Americium is an element with atomic number 95 and atomic symbol Am. It was named for the Americas, by analogy with Europium, which was named for Europe. Its atomic weight is 243. It has a whitish, silvery color. Americium is one of the Actinide or Actinoid group of elements in the Periodic Table of Elements. The Actinides, along with the Lanthanides, are classed as Inner Transition Elements among the Metals. Americium, a radioactive metal, was isolated by Glenn T. Seaborg, who later won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries concerning the transuranium elements, in 1944–1945. Americium was the third of the ten elements that Seaborg had a part in discovering. Americium had a role in Seaborg’s conceptual work as well. The actinide series was proposed by Seaborg, and his conception of this group arose from the difficulty he experienced in isolating americium and curium, the two elements he discovered while at the University of Chicago. The unexpected problem led him to theorize th
This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for americium. It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™, is also available. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information Center at 1-888-422-8737.
