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Plutonium-244 is the most stable isotope of plutonium, with a half-life of about 80 million years. It is not significantly produced in nuclear reactors because 243 Pu has a short half-life, but some is produced in nuclear explosions. 244 Pu has been found in interstellar space [13] and has the second longest half-life of any non-primordial ...
This is a list of radioactive nuclides (sometimes also called isotopes), ordered by half-life from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10 −19 and 10 −10 seconds.
The longest-lived are 244 Pu, with a half-life of 80.8 million years; 242 Pu, with a half-life of 373,300 years; and 239 Pu, with a half-life of 24,110 years. All other isotopes have half-lives of less than 7,000 years.
Weapons-grade plutonium is defined as being predominantly Pu-239, typically about 93% Pu-239. [24] Pu-240 is produced when Pu-239 absorbs an additional neutron and fails to fission. Pu-240 and Pu-239 are not separated by reprocessing. Pu-240 has a high rate of spontaneous fission, which can cause a
249 Cf ƒ: 242m Am ƒ: 141–351 a No fission products have a half-life in the range of 100 a–210 ka ... 241 Am ƒ: 251 Cf ƒ [4] 430–900 a 226 Ra № 247 Bk 1.3–1.6 ka 240 Pu 229 Th 246 Cm ƒ: 243 Am ƒ: 4.7–7.4 ka 245 Cm ƒ: 250 Cm 8.3–8.5 ka 239 Pu ƒ: 24.1 ka 230 Th № 231 Pa № 32–76 ka 236 Np ƒ: 233 U ƒ: 234 U № 150 ...
Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years. [1]
241 Pu ƒ: 250 Cf 227 Ac № 10–29 a: 90 Sr 85 Kr 113m Cd þ: 232 U ƒ: 238 Pu ƒ: 243 Cm ƒ: 29–97 a: 137 Cs 151 Sm þ: 121m Sn 249 Cf ƒ: 242m Am ƒ: 141–351 a No fission products have a half-life in the range of 100 a–210 ka ... 241 Am ƒ: 251 Cf ƒ [11] 430–900 a 226 Ra № 247 Bk 1.3–1.6 ka 240 Pu 229 Th 246 Cm ƒ: 243 Am ƒ: 4 ...
Pu has a shorter half life than 239 Pu, the grade of any sample of plutonium mostly composed of those two isotopes will slowly increase, while the total amount of plutonium in the sample will slowly decrease over centuries and millennia. Alpha decay of 240 Pu produces uranium-236, while 239 Pu decays to uranium-235.