Title: Plutonium, Chemical Element - water, uses, elements, metal, number, name, symbol, property
Headings: PLUTONIUM
PLUTONIUM
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
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User Contributions:
Karthik
isaac
anonymous

Content: The plutonium that is formed can be removed from the reactor. It is then  purified and re-used as fuel in another nuclear reactor. What an amazing process this is! 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.