Transuranium elements are those with atomic numbers greater than 92. They are produced in a laboratory or in a nuclear reactor by the capture of neutrons by bombarding the target element with slow neutrons - followed by beta decay to increase the atomic number.

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Someone had really messed up the answer. I have corrected it and I have added more information now. The transuranium elements have atomic numbers from 93 and on up - BEYOND URANIUM, with is element #92. How can anyone possibly say "91"?

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For the very heavy transuranium elements, heavier units to bombard the targets with heavier "nuclear bullets" are necessary, and those bullets contain protons, too. For example: carbon nuclei, oxygen nuclei, neon nuclei, silicon nuclei, calcium nuclei....

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The basic transuranium elements are those from element 93through element 100. These can all be produced by bombarding with neutrons only, so do not overcomplicate the situation. Also, these elements can be produced in amounts that really count - we can make actual lumps of them and do things with them, such as making useful instruments with americium and californium.

Uranium is element 92. We want the elements BEYOND 92, which start with #93, neptunium.

The elements above element 100 are just laboratory curiosities, produced a few atoms at a time, and it is probably that they never will be useful for anything. (We cannot guarantee this, though.)

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The transuranium elements of genuine interest - that we can make things with - are as follows: neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, and fermium.

The main use of neptunium is to make plutonium with it.

Plutonium, element #94, is used for fuel in nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons.

Americium through californium can be used in scientific and engineering instruments, smoke detectors, and maybe more useful things.

Einsteinium and fermium, we can make enough to look at now, maybe through a microscope.

As for the elements heavier than this, they can be made, atom-by-atom in the laboratory, and maybe we can learn something from them, and that is a good thing -- but to really use them for something, we cannot.

The practical transuranium elements for now are elements 93 - 100.

Let's not get diverted too far from that.

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