Title: What Is Plutonium? Characteristics of This Nuclear Fuel
Headings: What Is Plutonium?
What Is Plutonium?
What Is Plutonium Used For?
Role of Plutonium in Nuclear Reactors
Where Is Plutonium Found on Earth?
How Many Neutrons Does Plutonium Have?
Management of Recovered Plutonium in Nuclear Reactors
Health Hazard
Environmental Effects
References

Content: The closed cycle consists in subjecting the spent fuel to a mechanical-chemical process, known as reprocessing or reprocessing, which allows the separation of uranium and plutonium that still contain fission and transuranic products. The recovered uranium and plutonium are used to make new fuel and fission and transuranic products constitute the high-activity nuclear waste. How Many Neutrons Does Plutonium Have? Plutonium can have 238 or 239 neutrons. The isotope with the highest chemical interest is plutonium-239. It is formed in nuclear reactors. It is a fissile isotope but can also capture neutrons to form superior isotopes. In the field of nuclear energy, plutionio-239 is used as a nuclear fuel in the production of radioactive isotopes for research and as a fissile agent in nuclear weapons. Plutonium-238 is used in heat sources for space applications, thermoelectric heat generators and has been used in cardiac pacemakers. An important characteristic of many of the isotopes of plutonium is that they exhibit the phenomenon of spontaneous fission, in which the atomic nucleus can be divided spontaneously without the need to be bombarded by any neutron.