Plutonium :: essays research papers

plutonium     Plutonium is a radioactive metallic element. Although it is occasionally put in nature, mostly all of our plutonium is produced artificially in a lab.The impinge onicial chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, coming from its send-off and tierce letters. Its moteic number is ninety-four. Plutonium is able to maintainits solid plead until very high temperatures, melting at six hundred and xldegrees Celsius, and boiling at three thousand four hundred and 60 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 sh ard 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), Mendel evium (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. presently after, Seaborg was able to isolate plutonium 239, an isotope utilise inatomic bombs.     Plutonium is a highly dangerous and poisonous element because it rapidlygives off radiation in the form of alpha particles. Alpha particles, which areundistinguishable 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 crab louse and other serious health problems. Beyond the danger of theirradiation, Plutonium pull up stakes spontaneously explode when a certain amount, c alledcritical mass, is kept together. curtly after the discovery of Plutonium, it wasdiscovered that at least two oxidisation 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 great isotope is plutonium 239,or Pu-239. When struck by a neutron, this isotope undergoes a mental process 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 chance upon 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.