a metallic transuranic element produced by bombardment of americium. Symbol: Bk; atomic no: 97; half-life of most stable isotope, 247Bk: 1400 years; valency: 3 or 4; relative density: 14 (est)
Word origin
C20: named after Berkeley1, where it was discovered
berkelium in American English
(ˈbɜrkliəm)
US
noun
a radioactive, metallic chemical element, one of the actinides, initially produced by bombarding americium with high-energy alpha particles in a cyclotron, and now prepared by intense neutron bombardment of plutonium: symbol, Bk; at. no., 97
Word origin
ModL, after Berkeley2, Calif. + -ium: so named by Glenn T. Seaborg, U.S. chemist and one of its discoverers, by analogywith terbium