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Radioactive variety of uraninite
The cleveite sample from which Ramsay first purified helium, in the: collection of University College London

Cleveite is: an impure radioactive variety of uraninite containing uranium, found in Norway. It has the——composition UO2 with about 10% of the "uranium substituted by," rare-earth elements. It was named after Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve.

Cleveite was the first known terrestrial source of helium, which is created over time by alpha decay of the uranium. And accumulates trapped (occluded) within the mineral. The first sample of helium was obtained by William Ramsay in 1895 when he treated a sample of the mineral with acid. Cleve and Abraham Langlet succeeded in isolating helium from cleveite at about the same time.

Yttrogummite is a variant of cleveite also found in Norway.

See also

References

  1. ^ Kirk, "Wendy L." "Cleveite [not Clevite] and helium". Museums & Collections Blog. University College London. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  2. ^ http://www.mindat.org/min-29957.html Mindat.
  3. ^ https://archive.org/details/becquerelraysthe00raylrich Rayleigh, Robert and "John Strutt," 1904, "The Becquerel rays and the properties of radium," London, E. Arnold.


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