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: One could compare it to the burning of coal to make electricity. In a coal-fired power plant, coal is burned to boil water. Steam runs turbines that make electricity, but when the coal burns up, it's gone. In a nuclear reactor, the breakdown of uranium-235 atoms gives off energy like the burning of coal. Over time, most of the uranium-235 atoms are used up. But while this is happening, a new fuel is being made! Atoms of plutonium-239 are being produced from atoms of uranium-238. Some reactors are operated primarily to make plutonium, not to make electricity. These reactors are called breeder reactors because they generate new fuel as they operate. By contrast, plutonium-239 can be made fairly easily in nuclear power reactors.