Title: Plutonium - World Nuclear Association
Headings: Plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium and nuclear power
Plutonium and americium
Plutonium-238
Plutonium and weapons
Resources of plutonium
Toxicity and health effects
Notes & references
Notes
References
General sources
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Content: The alpha phase is hard and brittle, like cast iron, and if finely divided it spontaneously ignites in air to form PuO 2. Beta, gamma and delta phases are all less dense. Alloyed with gallium, plutonium becomes more workable. In the USA, the early 1970s objectives of developing a ‘plutonium economy’ were derailed in the 1976 presidential campaign, and as a result fuel reprocessing to recover and recycle plutonium was banned until 2005 and fast reactor commercialization was aborted. Russia has maintained a positive policy of civil plutonium utilization. Apart from its formation in today's nuclear reactors, plutonium was formed by the operation of naturally-occurring nuclear reactors in uranium deposits at Oklo in what is now west Africa, some two billion years ago. 2
Plutonium and americium
Civil plutonium stored over several years becomes contaminated with the Pu-241 decay product americium-241 (see page on The Many Uses of Nuclear Technology ), which interferes with normal fuel fabrication procedures. After long storage, Am-241 must be removed before the plutonium can be used in a MOX fuel fabrication plant because it emits intense gamma radiation (in the course of its alpha decay to Np-237). Americium-241 from the UK plutonium stockpile is to be used by the European Space Agency. According to the National Nuclear laboratory (NNL), about 250 kg of old civil plutonium (originally with about 10-14% Pu-241) will yield 10 kg of Am-241, depending