From Arsenic to Zirconium

THE TRANSURANIUM (TRANSURANIC) ELEMENTS

ALL SO BULKY, ALL DECAY

Those man-made transuranics, all so bulky, all decay,

Beware Pu, the “Fat Man” who could blast us clean away!

Am helps sniff out smoke so fine,

And Cm’s heat helps buoys to shine,

Beyond Fm, most atoms barely see the light of day.

Those man-made transuranics, all so bulky, all decay,

Venture beyond uranium on the periodic table and you enter the realm of the transuranium (transuranic) elements—the “heavyweights” of the periodic table. All transuranium elements are synthesized in nuclear reactors or particle accelerators,³² have high atomic masses, and are radioactively unstable ...