Appearance and Characteristics
Harmful effects:
Protactinium is harmful due to its radioactivity and is also toxic.
Characteristics:
Protactinium is a very rare shiny, silvery, highly radioactive metal that tarnishes slowly in air to the oxide. Almost all naturally occurring protactinium is the 231 isotope. It emits alpha radiation and is produced through the decay of uranium-235. Protactinium is one of the rarest and most expensive naturally occurring elements. The largest amount of protactinium obtained so far has been 125 grams in 1961 from the Great Britain Atomic Energy Authority. The extraction was made from 60 tons of nuclear waste material. (5)
Uses of Protactinium
Protactinium is used mainly for research purposes.
Protactinium-231 combined with the thorium-230 can be used to date marine sediments. (6)