Word: cerium
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...radiating bismuth in an atomic pile, costs about $10 per curie. SNAP's charge is the equivalent of 3,000 curies, bringing the price of fuel in the capsule to $30,000. An AEC official explained that some cheaper isotope might later be substituted for polonium. If cerium 144 can be used, the unit cost might be as low as $600 per battery...
...people lived on radioactive isotopes, the cost of living would be no source of worry. Last week the Atomic Energy Commission was offering cesium 137 for $1 to $2 per curie* (according to amount) instead of the former $14. Cerium 144 has dropped from $1,000 to $1 to $2. Other radioisotopes are marked down in proportion...
...stirred up millions of tons of quick-settling coral dust. First radioactive material from the May 21 explosion was brought home by the tuna boat Stiruga Maru. Analyzed by Dr. Kenjiro Kimura of Tokyo University, it proved to contain a familiar array of fission products-ruthenium, rhodium, tellurium, iodine, cerium, neodymium, etc.-as well as uranium 237 and neptunium 239. This combination of elements indicated that the explosion was the "fission-fusion-fission" type, which gets much of its energy from the fission of normally inactive uranium...
Telltale U-237. About 27% of the radiation came from U-237, a short-lived uranium isotope (half-life: 6.75 days) which does not exist in nature. Nearly all the rest came from elements with middle weight atoms, such as tellurium, zirconium and cerium. The content of the sample was roughly the same as that of dust that came from the great U.S. bomb exploded at Bikini on March...
...atom age, these rare-earth metals have suddenly come into new importance, have sent companies scrambling for new sources. Cerium, for example, combines with magnesium and aluminum to make tough, light, heat-resistant alloys ideal for jet-engine parts. The Atomic Energy Commission is interested in cerium's cousins because they are useful in shields against atomic radiation, have other secret uses...