Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Thorium

Thorium

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/March 5, 2018 by Wehwalt (talk) 14:01, 11 February 2018 (UTC)



Thorium is a weakly radioactive chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90. A reactive actinide metal, its chemistry is dominated by the +4 oxidation state. It is silvery and tarnishes black in air, forming the dioxide; it is moderately hard, malleable, and has a high melting point. Its most stable isotope, 232Th, has a half-life of 14.05 billion years, about the age of the universe: it decays very slowly to stable lead. Along with uranium, it is the only primordial significantly radioactive element. Thorium is chiefly refined from monazite sands as a by-product of extracting rare earth metals. It was discovered in 1829 by the Norwegian mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. It gained applications in the 19th century, but after its radioactivity was discovered in the early 20th century, its use significantly declined. Thorium has been suggested as a replacement for uranium in nuclear reactors.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Periodic table (8 January 2018); OTOH, there haven't been very many chemistry FAs on the main page at all, and the last elements were the very closely spaced Oxygen (5 September 2017) and Lead (27 August 2017).
 * Main editors: ,
 * Promoted: 19 January 2018
 * Reasons for nomination: Would be my first TFA; also a vastly important subject (being a chemical element, it has an article in 120 languages, and is also a vital article).
 * Support as nominator. Double sharp (talk) 15:04, 3 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Support as a Thorium enthusiast. The importance of this element is far too often overlooked.Iry-Hor (talk) 09:00, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Support as one of the main authors.--R8R (talk) 15:59, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Support: feature-class science article in good condition. Praemonitus (talk) 21:44, 6 February 2018 (UTC)