A soft silvery metallic element belonging to the lanthanoids; a.n. 61; r.a.m. 145; r.d. 7.26 (20°C); m.p. 1080°C; b.p. 2460°C. The only naturally occurring isotope, promethium-147, has a half-life of only 2.52 years. Eighteen other radioisotopes have been produced, but they have very short half-lives. The only known source of the element is nuclear-waste material. Promethium-147 is of interest as a beta-decay power source, but the promethium-146 and promethium-148, which emit penetrating gamma radiation, must first be removed. It was discovered by Jacob Marinsky, Lawrence Glendenin, and Charles Coryell in 1945.
https://www.webelements.com/promethium/ Information from the WebElements site