Title: Plutonium | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: Plutonium (revised)
Plutonium (revised)
PLUTONIUM (REVISED)
Overview
SYMBOL
Pu
ATOMIC NUMBER
94
ATOMIC MASS
244.0642
Discovery and naming
Physical properties
Chemical properties
Occurrence in nature
Isotopes
Extraction
Uses
Using fuel to make fuel
Compounds
Health effects
Plutonium
Plutonium
Bibliography
plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium
plutonium

Content: The half life of a radioactive element is the time it takes for half of a sample of the element to break down. Consider the isotope plutonium-242, with its half life of 376,300 years. In 376,300 years (one half life), only half of a sample prepared today would still be plutonium-242. The rest would have broken down into a new isotope. Extraction
Plutonium is extracted from natural sources only rarely and only for the purposes of research. Uses
The most important uses of plutonium depend on two of its properties. First, the radiation given off by plutonium occurs as heat. In fact, plutonium gives off so much heat that the metal feels warm when it is touched. If a large piece of plutonium is placed into water, the heat released can cause the water to boil. Plutonium provides electrical power on space probes and space vehicles.