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This isotope has been found in lunar soil, [5] meteorites, [6] and in the Oklo natural reactor. [7] However, one study on plutonium in marine sediments indicates that the atomic bomb fallout accounts for 66% of the 239 Pu and 59% 240 Pu in the English Channel.
Trace amounts of plutonium-238, plutonium-239, plutonium-240, and plutonium-244 can be found in nature. Small traces of plutonium-239, a few parts per trillion, and its decay products are naturally found in some concentrated ores of uranium, [54] such as the natural nuclear fission reactor in Oklo, Gabon. [55]
The actinide series is a group of chemical elements with atomic numbers ranging from 89 to 102, [note 1] including notable elements such as uranium and plutonium.The nuclides (or isotopes) thorium-232, uranium-235, and uranium-238 occur primordially, while trace quantities of actinium, protactinium, neptunium, and plutonium exist as a result of radioactive decay and (in the case of neptunium ...
Watchdogs are raising new concerns about legacy contamination in Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb and home to a renewed effort to manufacture key components for nuclear weapons. A ...
A group of researchers is warning that testing around a Los Alamos, New Mexico neighborhood has revealed what it calls "alarmingly high levels of plutonium." But to Department of Energy officials ...
Apr. 25—Trace amounts of plutonium from decades of weapons work at Los Alamos National Laboratory have contaminated the Rio Grande at least as far as Cochiti Lake and could be in the regional ...
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the environment, such as uranium, thorium and potassium and any of their decay products, such as radium and radon. [1]
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element, an actinide metal. Actinide chemistry (or actinoid chemistry) is one of the main branches of nuclear chemistry that investigates the processes and molecular systems of the actinides. The actinides derive their name from the group 3 element actinium.