Zirconium for use in jewelry. Zirconia is a component in some abrasives, such as grinding wheels and sandpaper. A small fraction of the zircon is converted to the metal, which finds various niche applications. Because of zirconium's excellent resistance to corrosion, it is often used as an alloying agent in materials that are exposed to aggressive environments, such as surgical appliances, light filaments, and watch cases. The high reactivity of zirconium with oxygen at high temperatures is exploited in some specialised applications such as explosive primers and as getters in vacuum tubes. The same property is (probably) the purpose of including
Zirconium the most common. It is released as a product of U, mainly in nuclear plants and during nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s. It has a very long half-life (1.53 million years), its decay emits only low energy radiations, and it is not considered as highly hazardous. Zirconium Zirconium is a chemical element with symbol Zr and atomic number 40. The name "zirconium" is taken from the name of the mineral zircon (the word is related to Persian "zargun" (zircon;"zar-gun", "gold-like" or "as gold")), the most important source of zirconium. It is a lustrous, grey-white, strong transition metal