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Plutonium-239 (239 Pu or Pu-239) is an isotope of plutonium. 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, 239Pu, is a fissile isotope, which means 239 Pu can undergo a fission reaction after absorbing a thermal neutron. Moreover, 239 Pu also meets the alternative requirement that the amount ( ~2.88 per one fission by thermal neutron) of neutrons produced by fission of 239 Pu is sufficient to sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction.
Isotopes of plutonium with mass numbers 240 through 242 are made along with plutonium-239 in nuclear reactors, but they are contaminants with no commercial applications. In this fact sheet we focus on civilian and military plutonium (which are interchangeable in practice–see Table 5), which consist mainly of plutonium-239 mixed with varying ...
- 3232 deg. C
- 16 to 20 grams/cubic centimeter
- silver
- 641 deg. C
Feb 5, 2024 · Plutonium (chemical symbol Pu) is a radioactive metal. Plutonium is considered a man-made element. Plutonium-239 is used to make nuclear weapons. Pu-239 and Pu-240 are byproducts of nuclear reactor operations and nuclear bomb explosions.
Jan 7, 2021 · Pu-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years and Pu-241's half-life is 14.4 years. Substances with shorter half-lives decay more quickly than those with longer half-lives, so they emit more energetic radioactivity. Like any radioactive isotopes, plutonium isotopes transform when they decay.
Plutonium is a radioactive actinide metal whose isotope, plutonium-239, is one of the three primary fissile isotopes (uranium-233 and uranium-235 are the other two); plutonium-241 is also highly fissile.
Plutonium Manufacture and Fabrication. All plutonium originates in nuclear reactors and is produced by the capture of extra neutrons by uranium-238 to form U-239, which then undergoes a series of decays to form Pu-239: U-238 + n -> U-239 -> Np-239 -> Pu-239
