Fermium

Symbol	Fm
Atomic Number	41
Atomic Mass	(257) g.mol -¹
Discovered by	Albert Ghiorso and colleagues in 1953

Chemical Properties of Fermium

Group	Actinides	Melting point	1527°C, 2781°F, 1800 K
Period	7	Boiling point	Unknown
Block	f	Density (g cm−3)	Unknown
Atomic number	100	Relative atomic mass	[257]
State at 20°C	Solid	Key isotopes	²⁵⁷Fm
Electron configuration	[Rn] 5f¹²7s²	CAS number	7440-72-4
ChemSpider ID	22432	ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database

What is Fermium?

Fermium is a transuranic radioactive element and a member of the actinide series in the periodic table of elements.
Fermium was first discovered by Albert Ghiorso and others during the work involving at New Mexico and the University of California at Berkeley in the radioactive fallout from a nuclear test in the Pacific Ocean.
So far, not enough fermium has been made to analyze its chemical properties, but it is predicted that it would be a metal susceptible to attack by acids, steam, and air.
Fermium is produced in small quantities and does not have an extended half-life.

As fermium is found in very small quantities and all of its isotopes have very short lives, there is no commercial use for the element.
The scientists make use of this element in their research in expanding their knowledge on the rest of the periodic table.

The most stable isotope of Fermium, that is fermium-257 has a half-life of around 100.5 days. The isotope can be decayed into californium-253 with alpha decay or through spontaneous fission.

It no longer exists naturally on earth but earlier it was known to have been produced in natural reactor deposits.
As it does not occur naturally, it has no known health hazards facts and effects.
Today fermium can be obtained in microgram quantities by bombarding neutrons of plutonium inside a nuclear reactor. The 257Fm and other higher isotopes can be produced with this process.