neptunium n : a radioactive transuranic metallic element; found in trace amounts in uranium ores; a by-product of the production of plutonium [syn: Np, atomic number 93]
- Afrikaans: neptunium
- Albanian: neptun
- Arabic: (nibtúnyum)
- Armenian: նեպտունիում (neptunium)
- Basque: neptunioa
- Belarusian: нептунiй (neptúnij)
- Bosnian: neptunij
- Breton: neptuniom
- Bulgarian: нептуний (neptúnij)
- Catalan: neptuni
- Chinese: 镎 (ná)
- Cornish: neptunyum
- Croatian: neptunij
- Czech: neptunium
- Danish: neptunium
- Dutch: neptunium
- Esperanto: neptunio
- Estonian: neptuunium
- Faroese: neptunium
- Finnish: neptunium
- French: neptunium
- Friulian: netuni
- Galician: neptunio
- Georgian: ნეპტუნიუმი (neptuniumi)
- German: Neptunium
- Greek, Modern: ποσειδώνιο (poseidónio)
- Hebrew: נפטוניום (neptúnyum)
- Hungarian: neptúnium
- Icelandic: neptún
- Irish: neiptiúiniam
- Italian: nettunio
- Japanese: ネプツニウム (neputsuniumu)
- Kashmiri: neptun
- Korean: 넵투늄 (neptunyum)
- Latin: neptunium
- Latvian: neptūnijs
- Lithuanian: neptūnas
- Luxembourgish: neptunium
- Macedonian: нептуниум (neptúnium)
- Malay: neptunium
- Maltese: neptunjum
- Manx: nepçhunium
- Mongolian: нептуни (neptuni)
- Norwegian: neptunium
- Polish: neptun
- Portuguese: neptúnio
- Romanian: neptuniu
- Russian: нептуний (neptúnij)
- Scottish Gaelic: neiptiùiniam
- Serbian: нептуниjум (neptunijum)
- Slovak: neptunium
- Slovenian: neptunij
- Spanish: neptunio
- Swedish: neptunium
- Tajik: neptuni'
- Tamil: நெருப்பியம் (neruppiyam)
- Thai: (nēpthūniam)
- Turkish: neptünyum
- Ukrainian: нептунiй (neptúnij)
- Uzbek: нептуний (neptuniy)
- Vietnamese: neptuni
- Welsh: neptwniwm
- West Frisian: neptunium
External linksFor etymology and more information refer to: http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/elem/np.html (A lot of the translations were taken from that site with permission from the author)
Neptunium () is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A silvery radioactive metallic element, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, 237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production and it can be used as a component in neutron detection equipment. Neptunium is also found in trace amounts in uranium ores.
Notable characteristicsSilvery in appearance, neptunium metal is fairly chemically reactive and is found in at least three structural modifications:
- alpha-neptunium, orthorhombic, density 20.45 Mg/m³,
- beta-neptunium (above 280 °C), tetragonal, density (313 °C) 19.36 Mg/m³, and
- gamma-neptunium (above 577 °C), cubic, density (600 °C) 18 Mg/m³
CompoundsThis element has four ionic oxidation states while in solution:
- Np+3 (pale purple), analogous to the rare earth ion Pm+3,
- Np+4 (yellow green);
- NpO2+ (green blue): and
- NpO2++ (pale pink).
Neptunium forms tri- and tetrahalides such as NpF3, NpF4, NpCl4, NpBr3, NpI3, and oxides of the various compositions such as are found in the uranium-oxygen system, including Np3O8 and NpO2.
Neptunium like other actinides readily forms a dioxide neptunyl core (NpO2). In the environment, this neptunyl core readily complexes with carbonate as well as other oxygen moieties (OH-, NO2-, NO3-, and SO4-2) to form charged complexes which tend to be readily mobile with low affinities to soil.
seealso Actinides in the environment
Precursor in Plutonium-238 Production237Np is irradiated with neutrons to create 238Pu, a rare and valuable isotope for spacecraft and military applications. 237Np will capture a neutron to form 238Np and beta decay with a half life of two days to 238Pu.
Weapons applicationsNeptunium is fissile, and could theoretically be used as reactor fuel or to create a nuclear weapon. In 1992, the U.S. Department of Energy declassified the statement that Np-237 "can be used for a nuclear explosive device". It is not believed that an actual weapon has ever been constructed using neptunium.
In September 2002, researchers at the University of California Los Alamos National Laboratory created the first known nuclear critical mass using neptunium in combination with enriched uranium, discovering that the critical mass of neptunium is less than previously predicted. US officials in March 2004, planned to move the nation's supply of separated neptunium to a site in Nevada.
HistoryNeptunium (named for the planet Neptune, the next planet out from Uranus, after which uranium was named) was first discovered by Edwin McMillan and Philip H. Abelson in the year 1940 in Berkeley, California. Initially predicted by Walter Russell's "spiral" organization of the periodic table, it was found at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley where the team produced the neptunium isotope 239Np (2.4 day half-life) by bombarding uranium with slow moving neutrons. It was the first transuranium element produced synthetically and the first actinide series transuranium element discovered.
OccurrenceTrace amounts of neptunium are found naturally as decay products from transmutation reactions in uranium ores. 237Np is produced through the reduction of 237NpF3 with barium or lithium vapor at around 1200 °C and is most often extracted from spent nuclear fuel rods as a by-product in plutonium production.
By weight, neptunium-237 discharges are about five percent as great as plutonium discharges and about 0.05 percent of spent nuclear fuel discharges.
- When an 235U atom captures a neutron, it is converted to an excited state of 236U. About 81% of the excited 236U nuclei undergo fission, but the remainder decay to the ground state of 236U by emitting gamma radiation. Further neutron capture creates 237U which has a half-life of 7 days and thus quickly decays to 237Np.
- 237U is also produced via an (n,2n) reaction with 238U. This only happens with very energetic neutrons.
- 237Np is the product of alpha decay of 241Am.
Since nearly all neptunium is produced in this way or consists of heavier isotopes which decay quickly, one gets nearly pure 237Np by chemical separation of neptunium from spent nuclear fuel.
Role in nuclear wasteNeptunium-237 is the most mobile actinide in the deep geological repository environment. This makes it and its predecessors such as americium-241 candidates of interest for destruction by nuclear transmutation.
Isotopes19 neptunium radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable being 237Np with a half-life of 2.14 million years, 236Np with a half-life of 154,000 years, and 235Np with a half-life of 396.1 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lifes that are less than 4.5 days, and the majority of these have half lifes that are less than 50 minutes. This element also has 4 meta states, with the most stable being 236mNp (t½ 22.5 hours).
The isotopes of neptunium range in atomic weight from 225.0339 u (225Np) to 244.068 u (244Np). The primary decay mode before the most stable isotope, 237Np, is electron capture (with a good deal of alpha emission), and the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay products before 237Np are element 92 (uranium) isotopes (alpha emission produces element 91, protactinium, however) and the primary products after are element 94 (plutonium) isotopes.
237Np is both fissionable and fissile. 237Np eventually decays to form bismuth, unlike most other common heavy nuclei which decay to make lead. This decay chain is known as the neptunium series.
Neptunium in Popular Culture
- Los Alamos National Laboratory's Chemistry Division: Periodic Table - Neptunium
- Guide to the Elements - Revised Edition, Albert Stwertka, (Oxford University Press; 1998) ISBN 0-19-508083-1
- WebElements.com - Neptunium (also used as a reference)
- Lab builds world's first neptunium sphere, U.S. Department of Energy Research News
- NLM Hazardous Substances Databank – Neptunium, Radioactive
neptunium in Arabic: نبتونيوم
neptunium in Bengali: নেপচুনিয়াম
neptunium in Belarusian: Нептуній
neptunium in Bosnian: Neptunijum
neptunium in Catalan: Neptuni
neptunium in Czech: Neptunium
neptunium in Corsican: Nettuniu
neptunium in Danish: Neptunium
neptunium in German: Neptunium
neptunium in Estonian: Neptuunium
neptunium in Modern Greek (1453-): Ποσειδώνιο
neptunium in Spanish: Neptunio
neptunium in Esperanto: Neptunio
neptunium in Basque: Neptunio
neptunium in Persian: نپتونیوم
neptunium in French: Neptunium
neptunium in Friulian: Netuni
neptunium in Manx: Nepçhunium
neptunium in Galician: Neptunio
neptunium in Korean: 넵투늄
neptunium in Armenian: Նեպտունիում
neptunium in Croatian: Neptunij
neptunium in Ido: Neptunio
neptunium in Indonesian: Neptunium
neptunium in Italian: Nettunio
neptunium in Hebrew: נפטוניום
neptunium in Javanese: Neptunium
neptunium in Swahili (macrolanguage): Neptuni (elementi)
neptunium in Haitian: Neptinyòm
neptunium in Latin: Neptunium
neptunium in Latvian: Neptūnijs
neptunium in Luxembourgish: Neptunium
neptunium in Lithuanian: Neptūnis
neptunium in Lojban: jinmrneptuni
neptunium in Hungarian: Neptúnium
neptunium in Malayalam: നെപ്റ്റ്യൂണിയംnah:Tlāloctepoztli
neptunium in Dutch: Neptunium
neptunium in Japanese: ネプツニウム
neptunium in Norwegian: Neptunium
neptunium in Norwegian Nynorsk: Neptunium
neptunium in Polish: Neptun (pierwiastek)
neptunium in Portuguese: Neptúnio
neptunium in Russian: Нептуний
neptunium in Sicilian: Nettuniu
neptunium in Slovak: Neptúnium
neptunium in Slovenian: Neptunij
neptunium in Serbian: Нептунијум
neptunium in Finnish: Neptunium
neptunium in Swedish: Neptunium
neptunium in Thai: เนปทูเนียม
neptunium in Vietnamese: Neptuni
neptunium in Turkish: Neptünyum
neptunium in Ukrainian: Нептуній
neptunium in Chinese: 镎