Uses of Americium

In comparison to many of the more basic/common elements americium does not have an abundance of uses, yet for a man-made element of its type, it is fairly useful.

The most common use of Americium (241Am) is the detecting chemical in high-precision gas and smoke detectors.  The radioactive traits pick up on the smoke and gas in ionization smoke detectors.

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Americium (241Am) has also been found to be useful in other areas such as a radiation source for thickness gauging and radiographic measurements.

Americium (243Am) is used as a target material for production of transcurium elements (since the elements, americium and curium, are so closely related, that they are used for similar studies) in high neutron- flux reactors.

Americium (241Am) is also a diagnostic aid for analysis of bone and mineral conditions. It is somewhat like a CAT scan.

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arrow01d.gif (305 bytes) Americium

elementtable.gif (781 bytes)Electronic Periodic Table