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Unfortunately, Pierre Curie died in an accident in 1906. For this scientific discovery, both received, together with Henri Becquerel, the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903. They were the first to separate polonium and radium from uranium. taxpayers, so we operate with a similar mindset, ensuring our sites are secure for the public and the environment.Pierre and Marie Curie both became researchers. As a federal office, we’re tasked with serving U.S. “Curie’s research was conducted for the public good, and it’s that inherent sense of public service that also connects Curie to LM.
#Marie curie radium full#
It’s coming full circle - from radioactivity’s discovery, to the management of its effects,” Carpenter said. “Our mission at LM is to support the legacy of the nation’s nuclear activities, so in a way, we’re at the end of the cycle that Curie began. While Canonsburg is the only LM site that Marie Curie ever set foot on, her connection to the office and its mission extends far beyond the few hours she spent in the area. LM took ownership of the Canonsburg site when the office was established in 2003 and has since conducted regular monitoring and maintenance efforts to ensure the site remains protective of human health and the environment. DOE was responsible for cleaning up the Canonsburg site in 1978, securely storing its radioactive materials in a disposal cell. Vitro Corporation became a uranium supplier for the federal government from 1942 to 1957 during the Cold War effort.
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The new owners acquired the area for the radium and uranium salts left on the site from Standard Chemical Company’s activities. The Standard Chemical plant remained shuttered until it was purchased by Vitro Corporation of America. However, in the early 1920s, Belgium identified sources of radium production materials that were far richer than those found in the United States, and Standard Chemical Company couldn’t compete, so it shut down just one year after Curie’s visit. This material came from sites that LM also manages today, including the Naturita, CO Disposal/Processing Site. Standard Chemical Plant Becomes LM’s Canonsburg SiteĪs the only producer of radium on the East Coast, Standard Chemical Company transported its materials from Colorado’s Paradox Valley to Canonsburg. But while Curie had succeeded in sustaining her work, the Standard Chemical plant was destined for a different fate. With funding secured, she set off for her visit to the Standard Chemical plant where she toured the facility and spoke with company leaders about their progress in the field of radium production. It was one of the world’s largest producers of radium at the time, taking Curie’s lab production of radium to an industrial scale.Ĭurie arrived in the United States in May 1921 to embark on the speaking tour.
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Just as adverse to publicity as she was to profit, Curie reluctantly agreed to participate in the tour under several conditions, one of them being a guaranteed visit to the Pittsburgh-based Standard Chemical plant.
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The month of November marks Curie’s birthday, so in honor of this trailblazing scientist and her invaluable contributions to nuclear exploration, this is a small chapter of her prodigious work. Her path to radium procurement ultimately led her to a chemical plant 18 miles south of Pittsburgh at the current location of LM’s Canonsburg site. To continue her life’s work, Curie set out on an international mission. “She was very unselfish with her discoveries, refusing to have any type of intellectual property claim over them, so she really opened up her findings to the world. “Marie Curie had always worked in very humble, very modest conditions,” said Cliff Carpenter, site manager for LM’s Canonsburg site. As a result, she found herself without the financial means to buy more radium to continue her research. In 1911, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of polonium and radium.Ĭurie stood to profit from her achievements if she patented her findings, but she insisted instead that they be shared widely. In 1903, Curie, alongside her husband and another scientist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of radioactivity, a term Curie coined herself. Curie was a two-time Nobel Prize winner and the only person to receive the honor in two separate scientific disciplines - the latter a distinction she still holds today.