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Americium
A silvery radioactive element produced artificially by bombarding plutonium with neutrons. Am-241 is widely used in household smoke detectors.
 Smoke detector Smoke detector.
It is a surprising fact that transuranic elements can be found in many homes. Smoke detectors contain around 150 millionths of a gram of the artificial isotope americium-241 which is extracted from spent nuclear fuel rods. The Am-241 is used as a source of alpha particles which ionize the air between two electrodes allowing a current to flow. If smoke particles are present, they will prevent the ionization and the drop in current triggers the alarm. Am-241 has a half life of around 450 years and decays into the much longer lived Np-237. So smoke detectors gradually accumulate significant quantities of this transuranic element as well.
Source: Hardware store
Size: 4"
Purity: n/a