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Americium-241 (241 Am, Am-241) is an isotope of americium. Like all isotopes of americium, it is radioactive , with a half-life of 432.2 years . 241 Am is the most common isotope of americium as well as the most prevalent isotope of americium in nuclear waste .
Americium-241 is the most common isotope of americium in nuclear waste. [8] It is the isotope used in an americium smoke detector based on an ionization chamber . It is a potential fuel for long-lifetime radioisotope thermoelectric generators .
Americium is produced mostly artificially in small quantities, for research purposes. A tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 100 grams of various americium isotopes, mostly 241 Am and 243 Am. [24] Their prolonged radioactivity is undesirable for the disposal, and therefore americium, together with other long-lived actinides, must be ...
The most important isotopes of these elements in spent nuclear fuel are neptunium-237, americium-241, americium-243, curium-242 through -248, and californium-249 through -252. Plutonium and the minor actinides will be responsible for the bulk of the radiotoxicity and heat generation of spent nuclear fuel in the long term (300 to 20,000 years in ...
Americium-241 has been used as a source of low energy gamma photons, ... Am-241: 241: 432 yr: 0.06: Used in most smoke detectors ... and long half-lives usually mean ...
Americium-241 is a candidate isotope with much greater availability than 238 Pu. Although 241 Am has a half-life of 432 years, which is about five times longer than that of 238 Pu and could hypothetically power a device for centuries, missions with more than 10 years were not the subject of the research until 2019. [44]
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Americium is stable in the +3 oxidation state, while the +4 oxidation state of plutonium can form in the human body. [20] The most common isotope americium-241 decays (half-life 432 years) to neptunium-237 which has a much longer half-life, so in the long term, the issues discussed above for neptunium apply. [21]