It is a chemical element with atomic number 90, although at the beginning it was located in group 4, currently we locate it in group 3 of the periodic table, considering it the second serial member of the Actinides due to its atomic mass.
Its symbol is Th and it was unknown until 1828, discovered by the Swiss chemist Jons Berzelius; Being a heavy element of silver white color with resistance to air, it is malleable and moldable in the cold state, thus being able to make sheets of it; Taking into account its powdered state, which when heated, ignites burning spontaneously, giving a total show of white and luminous flames, it has the ability to maintain its brightness for several months, however, although it is obtained in a degree of purity in its natural state, If it is with oxidizing agents or is attacked by contamination, it becomes opaque, turning almost entirely blackish gray, its name is Torio or Thorium for the Norse God Thor, the God of thunder.
Its most important property is that it is radioactive, but in a very low quantity, it is as abundant as lead; One of the functions planned for the future of Thorium is to become a nuclear fuel, due to three notable characteristics such as: security, because of its abundance and that it cannot be used as a nuclear weapon of mass destruction; This is a theory that is still being tested in the United Kingdom and Norway, with the Chinese being the most interested in this theory, giving their financial contribution to this research until the results are obtained.
At the moment they are used in portable electronic and gas lamps, which emit a bright and intense light on contact with the gas, which when heated gives a bright blue color to the flame, in welding electrodes, high quality and precision lenses. Living on this planet earth, we are exposed to some amount of this element, through food, water and the air that we breathe, fluctuating in small amounts, but the people who work with it and are exposed daily, when inhaling it they can develop diseases of the lungs as in the liver, and over time it presents as bone cancer.
