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Per-kilogram prices of some synthetic radioisotopes range to trillions of dollars. ... ( mg / kg ) Price [7] Year Source Notes USD/kg ... 239 Pu: Plutonium-239: ...
Fissioning of plutonium-239 provides more than one-third of the total energy produced in a typical commercial nuclear power plant. [6] Reactor fuel would accumulate much more than 0.8% plutonium-239 during its service life if some plutonium-239 were not constantly being "burned off" by fissioning. A small percentage of plutonium-239 can be ...
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 nuclear weapon to pre-detonate.
Historically, most plutonium-238 has been produced by Savannah River in their weapons reactor, by irradiating neptunium-237 (half life 2.144 Ma) with neutrons. [7] 237 93 Np + n → 238 93 Np. Neptunium-237 is a by-product of the production of plutonium-239 weapons-grade material, and when the site was shut down in 1988, 238 Pu was mixed with ...
Small traces of plutonium-239, a few parts per trillion, and its decay products are naturally found in some concentrated ores of uranium, [54] such as the natural nuclear fission reactor in Oklo, Gabon. [55] The ratio of plutonium-239 to uranium at the Cigar Lake Mine uranium deposit ranges from 2.4 × 10 −12 to 44 × 10 −12. [56]
The odd numbered fissile plutonium isotopes present in spent nuclear fuel, such as Pu-239, decrease significantly as a percentage of the total composition of all plutonium isotopes (which was 1.11% in the first example above) as higher and higher burnups take place, while the even numbered non-fissile plutonium isotopes (e.g. Pu-238, Pu-240 and ...
First plutonium-239 nitrate ... its price, about US$1,500 per gram (US$43,000/oz) ... The critical mass for a bare 242m Am sphere is about 9–14 kg ...
Plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile, like uranium-235. Small quantities of uranium-236 , neptunium-237 and plutonium-238 are formed similarly from uranium-235. Normally, with low-enriched uranium fuel being changed every five years or so, most of the plutonium-239 is "burned" in the reactor.