India has the world's largest reserves of which of the following radioactive metals?

Question

Question

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UP Police constable Previous paper 1 (Held on: 27 Jan 2019 Shift 1)

Answer 1

The correct answer is Thorium.

India has the world's largest reserves of Thorium.
The known reserves of thorium in India are estimated to be between 457,000 and 508,000 tonnes.
Kerala, Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan are the main producers.

Key Points

Thorium (Th) (90 atomic number, 232 atomic mass) is a radioactive chemical element.
Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
According to the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent Unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India has 10.70 million tonnes of Monazite which contains 9,63,000 tonnes of Thorium Oxide (ThO₂).
The country's thorium reserves make up 25 percent of the global reserves.
It can easily be used as a fuel to cut down on the import of Uranium from different countries.
It is a useful nuclear reactor fuel.
It is silvery white but turns grey or black on exposure to air.

Additional Information

Uranium is a radioactive chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table.
- Uranium was discovered in 1789 by a German chemist Martin Klaproth in the mineral called pitchblende.
- India claims to have discovered the world's largest uranium reserves in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Radium is a silvery-white metal that does not occur free in nature.
- Radium was discovered in 1898 by Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and an assistant G. Bémont.
Bismuth is hard, brittle, lustrous, and coarsely crystalline.
- It can be distinguished from all other metals by its color-grey-white with a reddish tinge.