Tantalum

Tantalum (element Ta, #73 of the periodic table) has a high melting point and is resistant to water, air and acid degradation. It is therefore very useful in many different alloys meant to be subjected to stressful environs, or where something very small has to be very strong. Tantalum is used extensively in small devices as an ingredient in capacitors.

There are no US tantalum mines.

There has been a lot of discussion on the Council list regarding the ecological, social and health impacts that tantalum and wireless technologies involve:

http://lists.freegeek.org/cgi-bin/htsearch?restrict=http%3A%2F%2Flists.freegeek.org%2Fpipermail%2Fcouncil%2F&words=tantalum&method=and

We came up with this Wifi Use Statement.

TODO: post real links to specific articles.

External links

• uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/html/tantalum.html