About the Neptunium Zone
Neptunium is a radioactive metal that is silvery in colour and solid at room temperature. It used to be very rare and for a long time, people thought that neptunium didn’t exist in nature and was a man-made element, but we now know that very small amounts can be found in the Earth’s crust. It can also be produced quite easily in a nuclear reactor.
Outside of nuclear research, neptunium doesn’t really have many uses in the world; it’s not poisonous nor can it be used within medicine. It’s highly radioactive so very dangerous to work with and it also doesn’t last very long. There may, however, be a very small amount in your smoke detector at home, because when the chemical americium in smoke detectors decays, you get traces of neptunium.