Plutonium :: essays research papers

elementic number 94Plutonium is a radioactive metallic element. Although it is occasionally build in nature, mostly all of our plutonium is produced artificially in a lab.The moroseicial chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, coming from its origin and ternary letters. Its atomic number is ninety-four. Plutonium is able to maintainits solid tell apart until very high temperatures, melting at six hundred and twoscoredegrees Celsius, and boiling 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 two shargond the Nobel prize in 1951for their discoveries of Plutonium, Americium (Am), atomic number 96 (Cm), Berkelium (Bk),and Californium (Cf). In addition, Seaborg later contributed to the discoveryof three much radioactive elements, Einsteinium (Es), Mendelevium (Md), andNobelium (No ). Plutonium was Seaborgs first discovery. Its name came fromPluto, the planet after Neptune for which Neptunium was named. In 1940, at theUniversity of atomic number 20 at Berkeley, he bombarded a sample of Uranium withdeuterons, the nuclei in atoms of deuterium, transmuting it into plutonium. concisely after, Seaborg was able to isolate plutonium 239, an isotope use inatomic bombs.Plutonium is a highly dangerous and poisonous element because it rapidlygives off radiation in the form of alpha particles. Alpha particles, which are like to the nucleus of a helium atom, consist of two 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 crabmeat and other serious health problems. Beyond the danger of theirradiation, Plutonium impart spontaneously explode when a certain amount, calledcritical mass, is kept together. presently after the discovery of Plutoni um, it wasdiscovered that at least two oxidization states existed. It is now known 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 beta isotope is plutonium 239,or Pu-239. When struck by a neutron, this isotope undergoes a crop calledfission. In fission, When struck by a neutron, the nucleus of the plutonium atomis split into two nearly equal parts, and energy is released. Although theenergy released by one atom is not much, the splitting of the nucleus releasesmore neutrons, which subscribe to 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.