Technetium is a chemical element with symbol Tc and atomic number 43. It is the lightest element whose isotopes are all radioactive; none are stable, excluding the fully ionized state of 97Tc.[4] Nearly all technetium is produced synthetically, and only about 18,000 tons can be found at any given time in the Earth's crust. Naturally occurring technetium is a spontaneous fission product in uranium ore and thorium ore, the most common source, or the product of neutron capture in molybdenum ores. This silvery gray, crystalline transition metal lies between rhenium and manganese in group 7 of the periodic table, and its chemical properties are intermediate between those of these two adjacent elements. The most common naturally occurring isotope is 99Tc.