Plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive metallic element. Although it is occasionally found in nature, mostly all of our plutonium is produced artificially in a lab. The official chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, coming from its first and third letters. Its atomic number is ninety-four. Plutonium is able to maintain its solid state until very high temperatures, melting at six hundred and forty degrees Celsius, and boiling at three thousand four hundred and sixty degrees. The density of Plutonium
of discovery in 1941 Plutonium has been both beneficial and detrimental to the human race. The isotope most detrimental is Plutonium-239 which has been used to create nuclear weapons. Plutonium-239 was used in the atomic bomb codenamed “Fat Man” that was dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. Normally a nuclear bomb uses 10 kilograms of Plutonium, but “Fat Man” used even less and still caused a lot of destruction. To put it in perspective again just 1 kilogram of Plutonium-239 causes an explosion
electricity to help mankind. Breeder reactors bring forth modern technology at its finest; mankind is becoming more and more creative to make reactors which can be optimally efficient and cost-effective at the same time. By being able to harness plutonium-239 with a blanket of uranium and start chain reactions consistently, breeders seem to be a viable option to help produce electricity for a bigger population. However, maintenance and operation costs are big problems to deal with, and these are some
Most of us would like to think that history is based on civil negotiations between representatives from around the world. The fact is, war has always been a disease that spreads not only in the battle field, and infects all those who come in contact with it. In the case of nuclear weapons, the United States, like many countries, raced to produce some of the most deadly weapons. Kristen Iversen shares her experiences surrounding a nuclear production facility in Boulder Colorado called Rocky Flats
You are watching the control panels and gages for rector two. Sitting comely you think about how easy your job is. It is a joke! All day you sit around and watch the gages for reactor number two just to make sure they maintain their settings. You don't even need to look at the gages either because a computer automatically regulates them without you. Life is so good. Suddenly all the sirens go of and the gages and displays spin wildly in every direction. The ground shakes and you can hear the sound
The presence of radionuclides and heavy metals in our surroundings has become the most serious environmental concern. These contaminants or pollutants fail to degrade on their own over time and must be removed or neutralized. Microorganisms act as natural catalysts in the process of transformation of toxic metals into non-toxic ones. This is why there is an increased interest in the understanding of microbiological processes which help in remediation of these toxic wastes from the environment (Francis
figure #2). A plutonium-240 core is surrounded with conventional explosives, when detonated; the force from the explosives increases the pressure around the core considerably. This increases the density of the core until the plutonium-240 reaches its critical mass, allowing a fission chain reaction to occur and the bomb to detonate. Because this A-Bomb was using plutonium-240, measures had to be taken to ensure the package would make it to the detonation zone mostly intact. Plutonium-240 has a much
The Manhattan Project On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay flew over the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb ever. The city went up in flames caused by the immense power equal to about 20,000 tons of TNT. The project was a success. They were an unprecedented assemblage of civilian, and military scientific brain power—brilliant, intense, and young, the people that helped develop the bomb. Unknowingly they came to an isolated mountain
DISEC Angola Topic 1: Peaceful Uses for Nuclear Technology I. Introduction Nuclear technology can be useful for things such as food preservation, insect control, agriculture, medicine, water resources, and in industries as well. However, with such tremendous benefits, come large drawbacks. There have been three large accidents in the history of nuclear energy: Three Mile Island in 1979, in which the fuel dripped to the base of the nuclear reactor and the reactor was damaged but radiation was
to create a wealth of plutonium that could be used in nuclear weapons. This was done by inundating uranium-238 with neutrons. When one of these uranium-238 atoms absorbed a neutron, it would become uranium-239. Uranium-239 is a very unstable element, and it decays very quickly by beta emission into neptunium-239. Neptunium-239 is also a beta-emitter, and it has a very short half-life of only 2.355 days. When Neptunium decays it becomes the aforementioned plutonium (plutonium-239, to be exact). In
The atomic bomb (also known as the atom bomb, A-bomb , or nuclear bomb) has a destructive power created by the fission of either uranium or plutonium. But, not any isotope of uranium can be used. Only U235 is used in the production of an atom bomb. U235 is very hard to come by due to the fact that it is only present within 0.7% of all natural uranium. In order to separate the U235 isotope from natural uranium a process of enrichment is used. The uranium must be enriched to 90% for actual use
The Hanford Nuclear Site, a highly radioactive place that contains two-thirds of the country's waste by volume. The site is known for making plutonium for the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War 2. We will be covering the activities within the Hanford Nuclear Site from the beginning to present and the involvement of the United States government. The nuclear site has many mysteries and unanswered questions but this is what is available. The activities within the Hanford Nuclear Site is a mystery
Introduction In today’s day and age many people around the world have become dependent on what seems like useless or needless things such as the internet and television. This is one of the negative effects of science and the technology that comes with it. Some of these technologies seem harmless, like cellphones and computers, but it seems as the years progress people want more and more power, literally and figuratively. The element uranium is a perfect example; this element has the power to do
as a nuclear power were very important in the Cold War. New technology and research for nuclear material was an essential part in building a nuclear weapon. The most important element for making nuclear weapons is uranium. Uranium is used to make plutonium, a very powerful element, by deuteron bombardment of uranium oxide. Uranium, a gray-colored element, is mined from the common uranium ores. Common isotopes, such as, radioactive sulfur (S35), radioactive carbon (C14), radioactive phosphorus (P32)
The Atomic Bomb "Then a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky . Mr. Tanimoto has a distinct recollection that it traveled from east to west, from the city toward the hills. It seemed like a sheet of sun. John Hersey, from Hiroshima, pp8 On August 6, 1945, the world changed forever. On that day the United States of America detonated an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Never before had mankind seen anything like. Here was something that was slightly bigger than an ordinary bomb,
this lack of security has raised the world’s awareness on attempting to control nuclear stockpiles. Also, there are concerns of nuclear power plants producing uranium and plutonium as a by-product; the two fuels are used in producing nuclear devices. Although these nuclear power plants were never meant to produce uranium and plutonium, countries have left it available to civilians for research and testing.1 Nuclear bombs can be a result of this experimenting, which is why some form of disarmament and
Oppenheimer and Glenn Seaborg to come to “The Hill” His main task while working in the Nuclear Chemistry division was to create a way to purify or cleanse plutonium that came from B. Hector in Hanford in Washington state. To take away the outcome of “spontaneous fission.” Wahl was then successful in creating such a device to do so that helped purify the Plutonium in fact we still use his method today. Another scientist that contributed to the Manhattan project greatly was a scientists whose name is Niels Bohr
“You don’t ban the beneficial uses of a technology just because that same technology can be used for evil. Otherwise we would never have harnessed fire.” -Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace co-founder- About two-thirds of electricity used globally today is generated from fossil fuels using the energy created from burning fuels such as coal and gas, which release greenhouse gases. These trap heat in the atmosphere and cause global warming. Moreover no more fuels are predicted being formed in the near future
1940s as well as nuclear chemistry developments. It involved the idea that there is a relationship between the mass of an object and the amount of energy it can be converted to using the speed of light. This leads into the idea of using Uranium and Plutonium to produce energy in atomic bombs through nuclear fission, a popular theory going around at the time, which was a huge influence for Einstein. Nuclear fission, or the splitting of the nucleus of an atom, generates energy and causes an explosion.
In order to help speed up production, nuclear weapons were being made at a plant in Kyshtym in Soviet Russia. This plant was a plutonium production reactor for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel processing, called the Mayak plant. (“1942-2002 60 years of nuclear,” 2002) The plant was built hastily between the years of 1945 and 1948, when it then produced weapon grade plutonium and uranium. (“1942-2002 60 years of nuclear,” 2002) Nuclear physicists had poor knowledge about nuclear physics, making many