Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
"Plutonium is a weird material," said Mike Furlanetto, a lab scientist and the project's director. "We understand it well enough to be confident our [nuclear] stockpile works, but there are a lot ...
The government says it will dispose of its 140 tonnes of radioactive plutonium - currently stored at a secure facility at Sellafield in Cumbria. The UK has the world's largest stockpile of the ...
Watchdogs are raising new concerns about legacy contamination in Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb and home to a renewed effort to manufacture key components for nuclear weapons. A ...
Trace amounts of plutonium-238, plutonium-239, plutonium-240, and plutonium-244 can be found in nature. 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 ]
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]
Plutonium compounds are compounds containing the element plutonium (Pu). At room temperature, pure plutonium is silvery in color but gains a tarnish when oxidized. [ 1 ] The element displays four common ionic oxidation states in aqueous solution and one rare one: [ 2 ]
Feb. 19—Los Alamos National Laboratory reached what federal officials say is a key milestone in developing its first plutonium pit that can be placed in a nuclear warhead as it seeks to produce ...
Today's moderated/thermal reactors primarily run on the once-through fuel cycle though they can reuse once-through reactor-grade plutonium to a limited degree in the form of mixed-oxide or MOX fuel, which is a routine commercial practice in most countries outside the US as it increases the sustainability of nuclear fission and lowers the volume ...