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berkelium definition

☆ berke·lium (bʉrk′lē əm)

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

Etymology: ModL, after Berkeley, Calif. + -ium: so named by Glenn T. Seaborg, U.S. chemist and one of its discoverers, by analogy with terbium

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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