• Thumbnail for Plutonium-238
    Plutonium-238 (238Pu or Pu-238) is a radioactive isotope of plutonium that has a half-life of 87.7 years. Plutonium-238 is a very powerful alpha emitter;...
    38 KB (3,992 words) - 17:11, 9 June 2024
  • Thumbnail for Plutonium
    of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first synthetically produced and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by a deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in...
    140 KB (15,045 words) - 05:11, 6 August 2024
  • isotope synthesized being plutonium-238 in 1940. Twenty plutonium radioisotopes have been characterized. The most stable are plutonium-244 with a half-life...
    26 KB (2,622 words) - 02:25, 21 April 2024
  • Thumbnail for Radioisotope thermoelectric generator
    space by the United States was SNAP 3B in 1961 powered by 96 grams of plutonium-238 metal, aboard the Navy Transit 4A spacecraft. One of the first terrestrial...
    64 KB (7,010 words) - 05:49, 8 July 2024
  • Thumbnail for Plutonium-239
    and these neutrons can be absorbed by uranium-238 to produce plutonium-239 and other isotopes. Plutonium-239 can also absorb neutrons and fission along...
    19 KB (2,062 words) - 05:38, 30 July 2024
  • Thumbnail for Plutonium-244
    (Pu/U)0 time dependence. Unlike plutonium-238, plutonium-239, plutonium-240, plutonium-241, and plutonium-242, plutonium-244 is not produced in quantity...
    14 KB (1,698 words) - 19:43, 12 June 2024
  • Medtronic and Alcatel developed a plutonium-powered pacemaker, the Numec NU-5, powered by a 2.5 Ci slug of plutonium 238, first implanted in a human patient...
    25 KB (2,763 words) - 17:32, 9 July 2024
  • Thumbnail for Neptunium
    commercial uses at present, it is used as a precursor for the formation of plutonium-238, which is in turn used in radioisotope thermal generators to provide...
    113 KB (13,662 words) - 19:53, 3 August 2024
  • Thumbnail for Fertile material
    one neutron capture include: plutonium-238 which converts into plutonium-239 plutonium-240 which converts into plutonium-241 Some other actinides need...
    5 KB (683 words) - 14:14, 20 May 2024
  • Thumbnail for Plutonium in the environment
    However, about 66% of the plutonium from a bomb explosion is formed by the neutron capture of uranium-238; this plutonium is not converted by the bomb...
    27 KB (2,991 words) - 23:36, 22 July 2024
  • Thumbnail for Critical mass
    Plutonium-238, U.S. Department of Energy: Office of Scientific & Technical Information Amory B. Lovins, Nuclear weapons and power-reactor plutonium,...
    19 KB (2,937 words) - 19:27, 15 April 2024
  • Thumbnail for Plutonium(IV) oxide
    Plutonium(IV) oxide, or plutonia, is a chemical compound with the formula PuO2. This high melting-point solid is a principal compound of plutonium. It...
    12 KB (1,179 words) - 23:03, 18 May 2024
  • Thumbnail for Uranium-234
    be extracted via the chemical ion-exchange process from samples of plutonium-238 that have been aged somewhat to allow some decay to 234U via alpha emission...
    6 KB (671 words) - 16:19, 26 June 2024
  • Thumbnail for Weapons-grade nuclear material
    "Standard weapon grade plutonium requires a Pu-240 content of no more than 6.5%." which is 65,000 PPM, and the analogous Pu-238 was produced in levels...
    13 KB (2,075 words) - 00:23, 10 January 2024
  • Thumbnail for Uranium-238
    and uranium-232. In a fission nuclear reactor, uranium-238 can be used to generate plutonium-239, which itself can be used in a nuclear weapon or as...
    22 KB (2,809 words) - 09:10, 6 June 2024
  • Thumbnail for Nuclear fuel
    Not all types of nuclear fuels create power from nuclear fission; plutonium-238 and some other isotopes are used to produce small amounts of nuclear...
    56 KB (7,010 words) - 15:14, 24 May 2024
  • uranium-235. Uranium-238 is also important because it is fertile: it absorbs neutrons to produce a radioactive isotope that decays into plutonium-239, which also...
    34 KB (3,113 words) - 20:05, 3 August 2024
  • MOX fuel (category Plutonium compounds)
    uranium-238. Most of the fuel mass in a reactor is uranium-238. By neutron capture and two successive beta decays, uranium-238 becomes plutonium-239, which...
    20 KB (2,544 words) - 15:37, 13 June 2024
  • sprayed in the face with liquid plutonium chloride, causing him to accidentally swallow some. Plutonium-238 and plutonium-239 are exceedingly difficult...
    22 KB (2,771 words) - 07:00, 17 May 2024
  • Thumbnail for Americium-241
    – but from the plutonium isotope 239 Pu . The latter needs to be produced first, according to the following nuclear process:   92 238 U   → ( n , γ )...
    34 KB (3,895 words) - 06:32, 17 June 2024
  • Thumbnail for Mound Laboratories
    Mound supplied enriched non-radioactive isotopes. The lab also produced plutonium-238-powered thermoelectric heat sources called SNAP or Systems for Nuclear...
    4 KB (390 words) - 00:49, 1 August 2024
  • Thumbnail for Radioisotope heater unit
    about one watt of heat each, derived from the decay of a few grams of plutonium-238—although other radioactive isotopes could be used. The heat produced...
    7 KB (802 words) - 13:52, 29 June 2024
  • Thumbnail for Voyager 1
    generators (RTGs) mounted on a boom. Each MHW-RTG contains 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres. The RTGs generated about 470 W of electric power at the...
    110 KB (8,599 words) - 01:33, 6 August 2024
  • that a nuclear power reactor uses has burnt up. The uranium-238 from which most of the plutonium isotopes derive by neutron capture is found along with the...
    52 KB (5,766 words) - 23:42, 20 July 2024
  • Thumbnail for Advanced Stirling radioisotope generator
    efficient than previous radioisotope systems, using one quarter of the plutonium-238 to produce the same amount of power. Despite termination of the ASRG...
    13 KB (1,281 words) - 23:11, 29 September 2023
  • lifetime as neutron sources. Californium-252 (spontaneous fission) Plutonium-238 & beryllium, (α,n) reaction americium-241 & beryllium, (α,n) reaction...
    6 KB (741 words) - 03:19, 25 May 2024
  • Thumbnail for Radioactive waste
    Thus plutonium may decay and leave uranium-235. However, modern reactors are only moderately enriched with U-235 relative to U-238, so the U-238 continues...
    112 KB (12,845 words) - 18:08, 8 August 2024
  • Thumbnail for Curiosity (rover)
    from the decay of radioactive isotopes, such as plutonium-238, which is a non-fissile isotope of plutonium. Heat given off by the decay of this isotope generates...
    120 KB (10,087 words) - 15:31, 6 August 2024
  • opposed to the typical RTG which would use a long half-life fuel such as plutonium-238 in order to produce more constant power over longer periods of time...
    5 KB (663 words) - 17:27, 19 June 2024
  • kilogram quantities of plutonium-238 oxide; this heat is also transformed into electricity with thermopiles. The decay of plutonium-238 produces relatively...
    130 KB (11,594 words) - 05:53, 24 March 2024