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: Very few isotopes will undergo nuclear fission. Two isotopes of uranium, uranium-233 and uranium-235, are among these. But uranium-233 does not occur at all in nature and uranium-235 occurs in only very small amounts. Using fuel to make fuel
T he production of plutonium fuel (plutonium-239) is a fascinating story. When nuclear reactors were first built, they all used uranium-235 as a fuel. Of the three naturally occurring isotopes of uranium, only uranium-235 will undergo fission. But the uranium used in a nuclear reactor is never pure uranium. Instead, it is natural uranium with an increased amount of uranium-235. The uranium is said to be "enriched" with uranium-235. But a lot of the main isotope of uranium, uranium-238, remains mixed with the uranium-235.