The Question:
This element has only one isotope with a reasonably long half life (1380
years) but is very difficult to produce in quantity. This element has no
commercial uses. The largest piece of this metallic element produced is
0.5 mg. Very little is known about this element's properties aside from
its crystal structure, melting point, and bulk modulus. What element am
I?

The Answer:

The element is Berkelium (Bk). A total of 730 mg of Bk has been isolated 
from reprocessed fuel rods in the US High Flux Isotope Reactor over an 18 
year period. That specific Bk isotope has a half life so short (320 days) 
that only a few tens of milligrams have ever been available at one time 
for study.



The winner of this week's quiz is Fredrick Miller of Astrolab with Mark 
Woolley of PTRL Laboratory a very close second. Fredrick will need to let 
us know where he is located so Ian can send Clumpy there to work. We also 
need Gary's location as Clumpy needs to make a stop there too.

So far Clumpy has:

Week 1 Lamar Young, SCS Coatings        - accomplished nothing (drank lots 
of coffee)
Week 2 Bev Christian, RIM               - conducted REACH material testing
Week 3 Drew Meyer, Bench                - Solderability testing and mowing 
the lawn
Week 4 Ian Fox, Goodrich                - ???? Ian owes us a description
Week 4 Gary Ferrari, Garrick Global             - ???? Gary will owe us a 
description once Clumpy arrives 
Week 5 Fredrick Miller, Astrolab                - ???? Fredrick owes us a 
description once Clumpy arrives

Everyone have a great weekend.

Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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