Title: plutonium | Infoplease
Headings: plutonium
plutonium
Content: The rods are dissolved in acid and the plutonium separated by chemical means, especially by solvent extraction. Plutonium is important for its use in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Plutonium-238 has been used to power scientific equipment in lunar exploration and implanted heart pacemakers (see pacemaker, artificial ). Plutonium is an extremely dangerous poison; it collects in the bones and interferes with the production of white blood cells. Plutonium is found naturally in very small quantities in association with uranium ores. However, it was discovered in 1940 at the Univ. of California at Berkeley by Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur C. Wahl; using a cyclotron to bombard uranium oxide with deuterons, they produced plutonium-238 ( half-life about 87 years). Plutonium, the second transuranium element, was named for Pluto, then regarded as the second planet beyond Uranus.