Since the relatively long-lived isotope plutonium-240 occurs in the decay chain of plutonium-244 it should also be present, albeit 10,000 times rarer still. Finally, exceedingly small amounts of plutonium-238, attributed to the incredibly-rare double beta decay of uranium-238, have been found ...
Plutonium-244 is the longest lived of the short-lived isotopes considered to be extinct on Earth today (Lachner et al., 2012).244Pu mostly decays by α-decay to240U, which decays further to join the232Th decay chain, ending at208Pb. As208Pb excesses could arise from244Pu or much more...
yellow, or olive green tarnish when oxidized in air. The metal quickly dissolves in concentrated mineral acids. A large piece of plutonium feels warm to the touch because of the energy given off by alpha decay; larger pieces can produce enough heat to boil water. At room temperature alpha-...
small amounts of another uranium isotope232U are formed — via (n, 2n) reactions (neutron spallation reactions) and capture in the resultant231Pa in the parent thorium. This isotope,232U, rapidly produces in its decay chain an isotope,208Tl, that...
Because 240Pu also occurs in the decay chain of 244Pu, it must thus also be present in secular equilibrium, albeit in even tinier quantities.[60] Minute traces of plutonium are usually found in the human body due to the 550 atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests that have been carried ...
The method uses the Bateman equations and the [sup241]Pu decay chain, namely [sup241]Pu → [sup237]U and [sup241] Am → [sup237]Np → [sup233]Pa. Age can be determined by assuming that the [sup237]Np and [sup233]Pa progeny are in secular equilibrium and that the plutonium is ...
Trace quantities arise in natural uranium-238 deposits when uranium-238 captures neutrons emitted by decay of other uranium-238 atoms. Both plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile, meaning that they can sustain a nuclear chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons and nuclear ...
Arising from β-decay of plutonium-241, with a half life of 14 years. 4 Weapons grade plutonium is characterised by a Pu-240 content of <6%, since this isotope has a high rate of spontaneous fission and hence neutron production, resulting in low explosive yield through premature initiation ...
Although 240Pu, an indicator for the Pu categorization, has a high spontaneous fission neutron (SFN) rate as characterized in Table 1, it has a relatively low decay heat (DH). The neutron source from spontaneous fis- sions enhances the probability of preignition, thus leading to the so-...
In a radioactive decay chain, when a daughter nuclide has a much smaller half-life than its parent nuclide, at a time interval very long compared to the daughter's lifetime, the growth and decay of the daughter is controlled by the parent and the two nuclides are in secular equilibrium ...