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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Content: Nuclear fission is a process in which an element is  bombarded with neutrons. The element breaks apart into simpler elements,  releasing large amounts of
Plutonium is used to make nuclear weapons. Here, a computerenhanced  image shows the mushroom-clouded aftermath of the dropping of the  atomic bomb over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. energy. Plutonium has been used to make nuclear weapons (such as  "atomic bombs") and in nuclear power plants to produce  electricity. Plutonium has also been used as a portable energy supply in  space probes and other space vehicles. Discovery and naming
In 1940, American physicists Edwin McMillan (1907-91) and Philip Abelson  (1913- ) discovered the first transuranium element, neptunium (atomic number 93). The neptunium they produced was radioactive. They  predicted it would break down to form a new element, atomic number 94. But  McMillan and Abelson were called away to do research on the atomic bomb.