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Symbol: Pu

Atomic Number: 94

Atomic Weight: 244

Classification: Actinide

Phase at Room Temperature: Solid

Density: 19.816 grams per cm cubed

Melting Point: 640°C, 1183°F

Boiling Point: 3228°C, 5842°F

Discovered by: Glenn Seaborg, Arthur Wahl, Edwin McMillan, and Joseph Kennedy in 1940

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It was once used to power pacemaker batteries, but has since been replaced.

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The first production of plutonium was at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It was made for the Manhattan Project to make a nuclear bomb.

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Plutonium-238 is used to make electricity for space probes using radioisotope thermometric generators. ... When concentrated enough, plutonium-239 undergoes a fission chain reaction. Because of this, it is used in nuclear weapons and some nuclear reactors.

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Plutonium is an extremely rare element in the Earth's crust. It is so rare that for many years it was thought that it did not occur naturally. The main source of plutonium is from the use of uranium-238 in nuclear reactors. Large quantities are produced each year by this process.

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Under standard conditions plutonium is a hard, brittle, silvery metal. It is a poor conductor of electricity and heat. When exposed to air, it becomes covered in a dark gray layer of oxidation.

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It can form up to seven different allotropes (crystal structures).

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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

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Famous scientist Enrico Fermi claimed he discovered element 94 in 1934, but it turned out to be a mixture of other elements including barium and krypton.

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"The price of weapons-grade Plutonium surged $200 over the past three weeks to an all-time high of just over $4,000 per gram, according to an international survey. And with the start of terrorist season just around the corner, prices are not expected to drop anytime soon."

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If anything at all, you may smell faint hints of something similar to hot metal. The "scent" your brain would try and recognize would actually be radiation tearing through your nose. Plutonium (Pu) is a synthetic radioactive heavy metal, and has a nasty reputation.

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The fissioning of an atom of uranium-235 in the reactor of a nuclear power plant produces two to three neutrons, and these neutrons can be absorbed by uranium-238 to produce plutonium-239 and other isotopes. Plutonium-239 can also absorb neutrons and fission along with the uranium-235 in a reactor.

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The plutonium available today is found only in trace amounts within uranium deposits and is extracted by burning the uranium, which is the process used in nuclear reactors. In 1972, a French physicist discovered evidence of nuclear waste products in an underground uranium deposit in Oklo (Gabon, Africa).

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Why Is Plutonium More Dangerous than Uranium? ... Plutonium-239, the isotope found in the spent MOX fuel, is much more radioactive than the depleted Uranium-238 in the fuel. Plutonium emits alpha radiation, a highly ionizing form of radiation, rather than beta or gamma radiation.