“Plutonium. A man made[1] highly toxic[2] synthetic[3] metallic element with a half-life of 24,400 years[4]. Traces of plutonium occur in uranium ore[5] and it is produced in a nuclear reactor by neutron bombardment of uranium-238. The isotope plutonium-239 readily undergoes fission and is used as a reactor fuel in nuclear power stations[6] and in nuclear weapons[7].
Plutonium is an extremely dangerous substance because of its radioactivity[8] and the fact that when ingested as an oxide or other compound it deposits in the bone and is excreted very slowly[9]. Metallic plutonium is not absorbed by digestive organs. Inhalation of only a few thousandths of a gram may lead to death within a few years[10] and much smaller quantities can cause lung cancer after a latent period of about 20 years[11].
Plutonium should be handled by remote control using extreme caution to avoid the release of dusts to the atmosphere. Plutonium metal is highly reactive[12] and thus must be stored at low temperatures in dry air to avoid corrosion. It was first identified in experiments at the University of California in 1940, and plutonium-239 was isolated a year later. There are 16 isotopes of plutonium, of which only five are produced in significant quantities: plutonium-238.-239,-240,-241,-242.”
1. It is usually artificial, but not always. See #5.
2. About as toxic as caffeine.
3. A tautology. See #1.
4. There are five major isotopes, as they also say. Each one has a different half-life. Plutonium-239 has the 24,400-year half life.
5. It occurs naturally in some uranium ore–that which has been part of a natural reactor.
6. Plutonium-239 can be used as reactor fuel–but so can 240, 241, and 242, which don’t work in bombs. The other three heavier elements are fissile, as well, but predetonate in a bomb–that is, the detonation of a plutonium bomb is so precisely timed that isotopes that split too quickly start their own chain reactions which use up the plutonium before the bomb can go off. This is known as a “fizzle.”
7. Only plutonium-239 can be used in a bomb. See #6.
8. Any isotope with a 24,400-year half life can’t be very radioactive. Plutonium-238 is fairly radioactive, but the others aren’t.
9. Being there doesn’t make it toxic.
10. Which is why several bomb workers in World War II inhaled massive quantities of it and survived.
11. They didn’t get lung cancer, either.
12. So is aluminum. I wonder why they didn’t mention the other “anomalous” property of a particular allotrope of plutonium: it expands on freezing.
Filed under Chernobyl, Health, International, Non Sequitur, Physics, Plutonium, Proliferation, Radiation, Safety
Posted on February 26, 2006 by Stewart Peterson |
