Cesium is Pyrophoric, It Burns In Air and Explodes Underwater

Can metals burn underwater? Can metals burn in air, with no ignition source? The answer is yes, there are multiple metals that can and have been known to do both of the above given the opportunity and right circumstances.


Above is a video of magnesium burning underwater. Phosphorus can do the same thing. Phosphorus bombs kill by burning through the flesh to the bone, and the fire cannot be put out.

Caesium also burns and/or explodes in water, much more violently than either magnesium or phosphorus, as you can see in the video above. 

Wikipedia; "Caesium or cesium is a chemical element with symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal with a melting point of 28 °C (82 °F), which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at or near room temperature. 

Caesium is an alkali metal and has physical and chemical properties similar to those of rubidium and potassium. (Ceasium substitutes for or mimics potassium in the body.) The metal is extremely reactive and pyrophoric, reacting with water even at −116 °C (−177 °F). It is the least electronegative element with a stable isotope, caesium-133. Caesium is mined mostly from pollucite, while the radioisotopes, especially caesium-137, a fission product, are extracted from waste produced by nuclear reactors.

Caesium is a hazardous material as a metal and its radioisotopes present a high health risk if released into the environment.

Caesium metal is highly reactive and very pyrophoric. In addition to igniting spontaneously in air, it reacts explosively with water even at low temperatures, more so than other members of the first group of the periodic table.[8] The reaction with solid water occurs at temperatures as low as −116 °C (−177 °F).[12] Because of its high reactivity, the metal is classified as a hazardous material. 

It is stored and shipped in dry saturated hydrocarbons, such as mineral oil. Similarly, it must be handled under inert gas, such as argon. However, a caesium-water explosion is often less powerful than a sodium-water explosion with a similar amount of sodium. This is because caesium explodes instantly upon contact with water, leaving little time for hydrogen to accumulate.[18] Caesium can be stored in vacuum-sealed borosilicate glass ampoules. In quantities of more than about 100 grams (3.5 oz), caesium is shipped in hermetically sealed, stainless steel containers.[8]

Caesium has a total of 39 known isotopes that range in their mass number (i.e. number of nucleons in its nucleus) from 112 to 151. Several of these are synthesized from lighter elements by the slow neutron capture process (S-process) inside old stars,[41] as well as inside supernova explosions (R-process).[42] However, the only stable isotope is 133Cs, which has 78 neutrons. Although it has a large nuclear spin (7/2+), nuclear magnetic resonance studies can be done with this isotope at a resonating frequency of 11.7 MHz.[43]

Decay of caesium-137

The radioactive 135Cs has a very long half-life of about 2.3 million years, while 137Cs and 134Cs have half-lives of 30 and two years, respectively. 137Cs decomposes to a short-lived 137mBa by beta decay, and then to nonradioactive barium, while 134Cs transforms into134Ba directly. The isotopes with mass numbers of 129, 131, 132 and 136, have half-times between a day and two weeks, while most of the other isotopes have half-lives from a few seconds to fractions of a second. There are at least 21 metastable nuclear isomers. Other than134mCs (with a half-life of just under 3 hours), all are very unstable and decay with half-lives of a few minutes or less.[44][45]

The isotope 135Cs is one of the long-lived fission products of uranium which form in nuclear reactors.[46] However, its fission product yield is reduced in most reactors because its predecessor, 135Xe, is an extremely potent neutron poison and transmutes frequently to stable 136Xebefore it can decay to 135Cs.[47][48]

Because of its beta decay (to 137mBa), 137Cs is a strong emitter of gamma radiation.[49] Its half-life makes it the principal medium-lived fission product along with 90Sr—both are responsible for radioactivity of spent nuclear fuel after several years of cooling up to several hundred years after use.[50] For example 137Cs together with 90Sr currently generate the largest source of radioactivity generated in the area around the Chernobyl disaster.[51] It is not feasible to dispose of 137Cs through neutron capture (due to the low capture rate) and as a result it must be allowed to decay.[52]

Almost all caesium produced from nuclear fission comes from beta decay of originally more neutron-rich fission products, passing through various isotopes of iodine and of xenon.[53]Because iodine and xenon are volatile and can diffuse through nuclear fuel or air, radioactive caesium is often created far from the original site of fission.[54] With the commencement of nuclear weapons testing around 1945, 137Cs was released into the atmosphere and then returned to the surface of the earth as a component of radioactive fallout.[8]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium

End

Cesium is Pyrophoric, It Burns In Air and Explodes Underwater; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/03/radioactive-cesium-is-pyrophoric-it.html

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