Title: Plutonium - Wikipedia
Headings: Plutonium
Plutonium
Contents
Characteristics
Physical properties
Allotropes
Nuclear fission
Isotopes and nucleosynthesis
Decay heat and fission properties
Decay heat of plutonium isotopes
Compounds and chemistry
Electronic structure
Alloys
Occurrence
History
Discovery
Early research
Production during the Manhattan Project
Trinity and Fat Man atomic bombs
Cold War use and waste
Medical experimentation
Applications
Explosives
Mixed oxide fuel
Power and heat source
Precautions
Toxicity
Marine toxicity
Criticality potential
Flammability
Transportation
Land and sea
Air
Notes
Footnotes
Citations
References
External links

Content: The Fat Man bombs used in the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, and in the bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945, had plutonium cores. Human radiation experiments studying plutonium were conducted without informed consent, and several criticality accidents, some lethal, occurred after the war. Disposal of plutonium waste from nuclear power plants and dismantled nuclear weapons built during the Cold War is a nuclear-proliferation and environmental concern. Other sources of plutonium in the environment are fallout from numerous above-ground nuclear tests, now banned . Contents
1 Characteristics
1.1 Physical properties
1.2 Allotropes
1.3 Nuclear fission
1.4 Isotopes and nucleosynthesis
1.5 Decay heat and fission properties
1.6 Compounds and chemistry
1.6.1 Electronic structure
1.7 Alloys
1.8 Occurrence
2 History
2.1 Discovery
2.2 Early research
2.3 Production during the Manhattan Project
2.4 Trinity and Fat Man atomic bombs
2.5 Cold War use and waste
2.6 Medical experimentation
3 Applications
3.1 Explosives
3.2 Mixed oxide fuel
3.3 Power and heat source
4 Precautions
4.1 Toxicity
4.2 Marine toxicity
4.3 Criticality potential
4.4 Flammability
5 Transportation
5.1 Land and sea
5.2 Air
6 Notes
6.1 Footnotes
6.2 Citations
7 References
8 External links
Characteristics
Physical properties
Plutonium, like most metals, has a bright silvery appearance at first, much like nickel, but it oxidizes very quickly to a dull gray, although yellow and olive green are also reported. At room temperature plutonium is in its α ( alpha) form. This, the most common structural form of the element ( allotrope ), is about as hard and brittle as gray cast iron unless it is alloyed with other metals to make it soft and ductile. Unlike most metals, it is not a good conductor of heat or electricity. It has a low melting point (640 °C) and an unusually high boiling point (3,228 °C). Alpha decay, the release of a high-energy helium nucleus, is the most common form of radioactive decay for plutonium.