{"id":25846,"date":"2024-08-16T10:17:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T04:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=25846"},"modified":"2025-04-07T21:37:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:07:05","slug":"californium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/californium\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Californium?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Californium:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a silvery-white <strong>synthetic radioactive metal<\/strong> with the <strong>atomic number 98<\/strong> on the periodic table.<\/li>\n<li>It was first <strong>synthesised in 1950<\/strong> by a team at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/li>\n<li>The element is named after the American state of California and the university where it was discovered.<\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>not found naturally<\/strong> and is produced through nuclear reactions, specifically by bombarding curium with helium ions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Properties<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is known for its <strong>intense radioactivity<\/strong> and is considered both valuable and hazardous.<\/li>\n<li>Californium is a <strong>member of the actinide series<\/strong> in the periodic table.<\/li>\n<li>The element\u2019s most notable <strong>isotopes include Cf-251<\/strong>, which has a half-life of 898 years and is the most stable, and Cf-249 and Cf-250, which have shorter half-lives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Applications<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>very strong neutron emitter<\/strong> and is used in portable metal detectors for identifying gold and silver ores, to help <strong>identify water and oil layersin oil<\/strong> wells, and detect metal fatigue and stress in aeroplanes.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s primary applications include <strong>starting nuclear reactors<\/strong>, optimising coal power plants, and treating certain cancers.<\/li>\n<li>It is also <strong>used in radiography<\/strong>, gold prospecting, and as a neutron source in various industrial applications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is radioactivity?<\/h3>\n<p>Radioactivity is the property of some unstable atoms (radionuclides) to spontaneously emit nuclear radiation, usually alpha particles or beta particles often accompanied by gamma-rays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/long-reads\/californium-radioactive-substance-bihar-gopalganj-police-9516216\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Californium that wasn\u2019t \u2014 how \u2018radioactive\u2019 substance kept Bihar\u2019s Gopalganj police on edge<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Californium  is a silvery-white synthetic radioactive metal with the atomic number 98 on the periodic table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","7":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}