Plutonium :: essays research papers

PlutoniumPlutonium is a radioactive metallic piece. Although it is occasionallyfound in nature, mostly all of our plutonium is produced artificially in a lab.The official chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, coming from its first and trinity letters. Its atomic number is ninety-four. Plutonium is able to maintainits solid state until very high temperatures, melting at six hundred and fortydegrees Celsius, and turn at three thousand four hundred and sixty degrees.The density of Plutonium, at twenty degrees centigrade, is 19.86 grams per cubiccentimeter.Plutonium was discovered, in the laboratory, by Glenn Theodore Seaborg,and his associate Edward M. McMillan. The 2 shared the Nobel prize in 1951for their discoveries of Plutonium, Americium (Am), Curium (Cm), Berkelium (Bk),and Californium (Cf). In addition, Seaborg later contributed to the discoveryof three more radioactive elements, Einsteinium (Es), doctor (Md), andNobelium (No). Plutonium was Seaborgs first discovery. Its nam e came fromPluto, the planet later on Neptune for which Neptunium was named. In 1940, at theUniversity of California at Berkeley, he bombarded a sample of Uranium withdeuterons, the nuclei in atoms of deuterium, transmuting it into plutonium.Shortly after, Seaborg was able to isolate plutonium 239, an isotope used inatomic bombs.Plutonium is a highly dangerous and poisonous element because it rapidlygives off radiation in the form of alpha particles. Alpha particles, which areidentical to the nucleus of a helium atom, consist of cardinal protons and twoneutrons tightly bound together. Although the particles can only travel aboutfive centimeters in the air, they can cause great damage when the enter the body,causing crab louse and other serious health problems. Beyond the danger of theirradiation, Plutonium will spontaneously explode when a certain amount, calledcritical mass, is kept together. Soon after the discovery of Plutonium, it wasdiscovered that at least two oxidation st ates existed. It is now know to existin oxidation states of +3, +4, +5, and +6.Currently, there are fifteen known isotopes of Plutonium, with massnumbers ranging between 232 and 246. The most important isotope is plutonium 239,or Pu-239. When struck by a neutron, this isotope undergoes a process calledfission. In fission, When struck by a neutron, the nucleus of the plutonium atomis split into two nearly equal parts, and talent is released. Although theenergy released by one atom is not much, the splitting of the nucleus releasesmore neutrons, which strike more plutonium atoms. This process, called a chain-reaction, produces enormous amounts of energy. This energy is often used topower nuclear reactors, or to provide the energy for nuclear weapons.