Title: Chemistry for Kids: Elements - Plutonium
Headings: Elements for Kids
Elements for Kids
Plutonium

Content: Large quantities are produced each year by this process. How is plutonium used today? Plutonium is used in both nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It was used to create the second nuclear weapon deployed during World War II which was the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Plutonium has also been used as a power and heat source for spacecraft. It was used on the Voyager and Pioneer space probes as well as the Pathfinder Mars robot lander and the Curiosity Mars rover. How was it discovered? Plutonium was discovered by a team of scientists at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in California in 1940. Glen Seaborg, Arthur Wahl, Edwin McMillan, and Joseph Kennedy produced and isolated plutonium-238 from a sample of uranium. The discovery of plutonium was kept secret until 1946 because of World War II.