Isotopes of californium projectiles, mortar projectiles, rockets, bombs, land mines, and improvised explosive devices (IED). In the oil industry, Cf-252 neutron sources are used to find layers of petroleum and water in a well. Instrumentation is lowered into the well which bombards the formation with high energy neutrons to determine porosity, permeability, and hydrocarbon presence along the length of the borehole. Californium-252 has also been used in the treatment of serious forms of cancer. In patients suffering from certain types of brain and cervical cancer, Cf-252 can be used as a more cost-effective substitute for radium. Isotopes of californium Californium (Cf) is an
Californium Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, started producing small batches of californium in the 1960s. By 1995, the HFIR nominally produced of californium annually. Plutonium supplied by the United Kingdom to the United States under the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement was used for californium production. The Atomic Energy Commission sold californium-252 to industrial and academic customers in the early 1970s for $10 per microgram and an average of of californium-252 were shipped each year from 1970 to 1990. Californium metal was first prepared in 1974 by Haire and Baybarz who reduced californium(III) oxide with lanthanum metal