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A. History
Technetium, as element 43, was discovered in 1937 by Perrier and Segr in a
sample of molybdenum which was irradiated by deuterons.1 The new element
received its name from the Greek word technetos, meaning artificial, because
technetium was the first element previously unknown on earth to be made
artificially.2 In 1939 Seaborg and Segr observed that molybdenum-98 irradiated
with slow neutrons gave rise to 99Tc through decay of the metastable isomer,
99mTc.3 Eventually 21 isotopes of technetium were discovered ranging from 90Tc to
110Tc, with technetium-110 having the shortest half-life (0.86 sec) and 97Tc the
longest (2.6 x 106 y). All technetium isotopes are radioactive.