Neptunium
Neptunio (Np, Z=93)
- Date
- 1940 · confidence high
- Place
- Berkeley, California, United States
- Credited to
- Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson
- People
- 👤 Edwin Mattison McMillan1907–1991👤 Philip Hauge Abelson1913–2004
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
McMillan and Abelson produced the first transuranium element by bombarding uranium with neutrons in the Berkeley cyclotron.
Fermi had believed he produced it in 1934 (ausonium), but these were fission products.
What it led to
- Opening of the transuranium series
- Production of plutonium from Np-239
- Np-237 neutron detectors
Built on
- Lawrence cyclotron
- Discovery of fission
Made possible
- Plutonium1940
- Reactor plutonium production