090 Thorium
090 Thorium
088 Radium089 Actinium090 Thorium091 Protactinium092 UraniumBlankBlankBlankBlankBlankBlankBlankBlank058 Cerium090 Thorium
Detailed Technical Data

Compare at other websites:
www.webelements.com
Los Alamos National Labs
Royal Society of Chemistry
Toxicology
Isotope information
Minerals
Translations and Etymology
Science Fiction (Main Site)
Comics
Poetry (Main Site)
Haiku (Main Site)

Collections:
Elements I Have Extra Of
Samples with Sounds
090.1
SoundLantern mantle.
Amazingly, Coleman-type camping lanterns contain some radioactive thorium oxide. It's an incandescent material that greatly increases the light output of the lantern when it's heated in the flame. There are non-radioactive alternatives, mainly other rare earth oxides, but they are more expensive. We know this mantle contains radioactive thorium because the donor, who works for the Environmental Health & Safety department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, tested it with a Geiger counter.
The sound for this sample is from the Geiger counter.
I've got one mantle in a lead cup in the table, and another one in the Hot Box.
Source: Hardware Store
Contributor: Trish Craig
Acquired: 28 May, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 2"
Purity: <20%
090.2
Scary stuff.
This is a mixture of powder and lumps of actual thorium metal. It's radioactively quite hot, and because thorium emits high energy particles, the radiation is not stopped by the miserable sixteenth inch of lead equivalent in our Hot Box display case. I made a special lockable container, called The Can to hold this and the uranyl nitrate.

On September 17, 2002 one chip from this sample was de-accessioned from the Table to be sent to David Franco in small thanks for the many elements he has contributed. I made a lead tamale to hold it in shipping:
LeadTamale
Lord only knows what the postal authorities would think if they found this.

Click the source link for an interesting story about where this sample came from.
Source: Tryggvi Emilsson and Timothy Brumleve
Contributor: Tryggvi Emilsson and Timothy Brumleve
Acquired: 6 September, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Purity: 99.9%
090.3
Sample from the Red Green and Blue Company Element Set.
The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.

For most sample from this set I have my own picture on the left and the one from the company here, but I haven't taken a picture of this sample yet so there's only one picture.

Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Acquired: 25 January, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 99.5%
090.4
Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.

Radioactive elements like this one are represented in this particular set by a non-radioactive dummy powder, which doesn't look anything like the real element.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.

Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 0%