Protactinium - a very dull chemical element

Protactinium is a rare, radioactive element that has no uses and may be the most boring element, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 67 of Elemental.

Protactinium is rare, radioactive and one of the ten least abundant chemical elements in the Earth's crust.

It was an element whose existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in the first periodic table in 1869, although it took 40 years for its existence to be confirmed.

Little work was done on it until about 100 grams of the element were isolated in the early 1960s which allowed a small amount of research to be carried out.

This may be the most boring chemical element, but Prof Allan Blackman from AUT suggests you listen to the 'Most boring chemical element' episode of Elemental to find out for certain.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details