Plutonium story

The discovery of Pu has been described in detail by Seaborg in his Plutonium Story (chapter 1 of the book The Transuranium Elements 1958). First, the separation of Pu from Th caused some difficulties, because both elements were in the oxidation state 4-4. After oxidation of Pu(IV) by persulfate to Pu(VI), separation became possible. Pu is produced in appreciable amounts in nuclear reactors (section 14.1), but it has not immediately been detected, due to its low specific activity caused by its long half-life. After the discovery of Pu, plutonium gained great practical importance, because of the high fission cross section of Pu by thermal neutrons. Very small amounts of Pu are present in uranium ores, due to (n, y) reaction of neutrons from cosmic radiation with The ratio Pu/ U is of the order of 10 In 1971, the longest-lived isotope of plutonium, Pu (ri/2 = 8.00 lO y) was found by Hoffman in the Ce-rich rare-earth mineral bastnaesite, in concentrations of the order of 10 gAg-... 

Roland, L.K., Jerry, B.G., Gary, T., Eds. The Plutonium Story Journals of Professor Glenn T Seaborg, 1939-1946 Benefiel, Battelle Press Columbus, OH, 1994. 

Stanley G. Thompson joined my group on October 1, 1942 and it fell to his lot to discover the process that was chosen for use at Clinton Laboratories (in Tennessee) and the Hanford Engineer Works (in the state of Washington) for the separation of plutonium from uranium and the immense intensity of radioactive fission products with which it was produced in the nuclear chain reactors. Again I turn to my journal to tell the story ... 

Gerber, M.S., The Plutonium Production Story at the Hanford Site Processes and Facility History, WHC-MR-0521, Rev. 0, Westinghouse Hanford Company, Richland, WA, 1996. 

Fermi s pile turned out to be a plant which efficiently manufactured a new element in large quantities. This element is plutonium. It is a brand new man-made chemical element which fissons just as easily as U-235. The story of the birth of this synthetic element goes back to a day in May, 1940, when two men using Lawrence s cyclotron at Berkeley, California, bombarded uranium with neutron bullets. The two men were Edwin M. McMillan and Philip H. Abelson. After the bombardment of U-238 they detected traces of a new element, heavier than uranium. This new element, No. 93, was named neptunium by McMillan. It was a very difficult element to study, for its life span was very short. It threw out neutrons immediately and in a split second was no longer neptunium. 

The production of plutonium fuel (plutonium-239) is a fascinating story. When nuclear reactors were first built, they all used uranium-235 as a fuel. Of the three naturally occurring isotopes of uranium, only uranium-235 will undergo fission. 

Sinha SP (1983) Systematics and properties of the lanthanides. Reidel, Dordrecht Bickel L (1979) The deadly element the story of uranium. Stein and Day, New York Cleveland JM (1979) The chemistry of plutonium. American Nuclear Society, La Grange Park, EL... 

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