Word: thorium
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...strawboard. Chemists cut out bits of it which fogged X-ray film, and burned them. The ashes were strongly radioactive, shooting out beta rays (streams of electrons). They gave out no alpha rays (helium nuclei), thus proving that they were not the naturally radioactive elements: radium, uranium, or thorium. The only remaining possibility was that, the guilty particles came from the atomic bomb, were carried to the Middle West by the wind, and washed down by the rain. Six months after the explosion, they were still measurably active...
When Swedish Scientist Berzelius in 1828 named his newly discovered element thorium-after Thor, god of thunder-the choice was perhaps more portentous than Berzelius guessed. Last week in Ottawa, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King told the House of Commons that Canada's huge atomic-energy project at Chalk River, Ont. is exploring the use of thorium as a source of atomic energy. This was the first public hint of large-scale atomic experiments with elements other than uranium...
...close relative of uranium, thorium is another radioactive, heavy element (atomic number 90, atomic weight 232.12) that disintegrates into lower-weight elements and eventually becomes lead. Of the three standard radioactive progressions - uranium-radium, actinium and thorium-those of uranium and thorium are the most alike. According to the Smyth report, thorium was considered as a basic source of atomic power, but uranium was chosen instead...
...earth's crust, scientists estimate, is composed of twelve parts per million of thorium and four parts per million of uranium. British India produced three-quarters of the prewar supply of thorium. Other deposits have been worked in Brazil, Australia, The Netherlands East Indies, and parts...
Commercial uses are limited and prosaic-Welsbach gaslight mantles, carbon terminals for projectors, luminous watch dials. Since commercial production has never been reported in Canada, two possibilities are suggested: 1) the materials for Chalk River will be imported; or 2) under the wartime security blackout, a workable deposit of thorium has been discovered in Canada...