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Plutonium-239 (239 Pu or Pu-239) is an isotope of plutonium.Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose.
Weapons-grade plutonium is defined as being predominantly Pu-239, typically about 93% Pu-239. [24] Pu-240 is produced when Pu-239 absorbs an additional neutron and fails to fission. Pu-240 and Pu-239 are not separated by reprocessing. Pu-240 has a high rate of spontaneous fission, which can cause a nuclear weapon to pre-detonate. This makes ...
The "reactor-grade" plutonium produced by a regular LWR burnup cycle typically contains less than 60% Pu-239, with up to 30% parasitic Pu-240/Pu-242, and 10–15% fissile Pu-241. [126] It is unknown if a device using plutonium obtained from reprocessed civil nuclear waste can be detonated, however such a device could hypothetically fizzle and ...
Fission product yields by mass for thermal neutron fission of U-235 and Pu-239 (the two typical of current nuclear power reactors) and U-233 (used in the thorium cycle). This page discusses each of the main elements in the mixture of fission products produced by nuclear fission of the common nuclear fuels uranium and plutonium.
239 Pu is virtually nonexistent in nature. It is made by bombarding uranium-238 with neutrons. Uranium-238 is present in quantity in most reactor fuel; hence 239 Pu is continuously made in these reactors. Since 239 Pu can itself be split by neutrons to release energy, 239 Pu provides a portion of the energy generation in a nuclear reactor.
Plutonium-239 is made in a nuclear reactor by irradiating Uranium-238 with neutrons, and Uranium-233 is made the same way using Thorium-232. Since they are different elements than the source material, they can be separated relatively easily through chemical processes.
Alaska holds the all-time U.S. record. The mercury plummeted to 80 degrees below zero on Jan. 23, 1971, in Prospect Creek, north of Fairbanks.
In contrast to the low burnup of weeks or months that is commonly required to produce weapons-grade plutonium (WGPu/ 239 Pu), the long time in the reactor that produces reactor-grade plutonium leads to transmutation of much of the fissile, relatively long half-life isotope 239 Pu into a number of other isotopes of plutonium that are less ...