History of chemistry element among the fractions that resulted. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native country of Poland. On December 21, 1898, the Curies detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende. They presented this finding to the French Academy of Sciences on December 26, proposing that the new element be called radium. The Curies then went to work isolating polonium and radium from naturally occurring compounds to prove that they were new elements. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram
Uranium trioxide which operates at the world's largest uranium refinery at Blind River, Ontario, produces high-purity uranium trioxide. It has been reported that the corrosion of uranium in a silica rich aqueous solution forms uranium dioxide, uranium trioxide, and coffinite. In pure water, schoepite (UO)O(OH)·12(HO) is formed in the first week and then after four months studtite (UO)O·4(HO) was produced. This alteration of uranium oxide also leads to the formation of metastudtite, Like all hexavalent uranium compounds, UO is hazardous by inhalation, ingestion, and through skin contact. It is a poisonous, slightly radioactive substance, which may cause shortness of breath, coughing, acute