Plutonium-238
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Plutonium-238 is a radioactive isotope of plutonium that has a half-life of 87.7 years.
Plutonium-238 oxide pellet glowing from its decay heat
Ernest O. Lawrence's 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, in August, 1939, the most powerful accelerator in the world at the time. Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin M. McMillan (right) used it to discover plutonium, neptunium, and many other transuranic elements and isotopes, for which they received the 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Diagram of the 238Pu Milliwatt RTG source.
Radioisotope-powered cardiac pacemaker developed by the Atomic Energy Commission in the United States. The atomic battery stimulates the pulsing action of a malfunctioning heart. Circa 1967.
Plutonium-239
Videos
Plutonium-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. Plutonium-239 is
Plutonium-238
…237 93Np + n → 238 93Np Neptunium-237 is a by-product of the production of plutonium-239 weapons-grade material, and when the site was shut down in 1988, 238Pu was mixed with about 16% 239Pu. Plutonium was first synthesized in 1940 and…
The first sample of plutonium in which nuclear fission was detected, pictured above, was a sample of plutonium-239.