Isotopes of Plutonium - Notable Isotopes

Notable Isotopes

• Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 87.74 years and emits alpha particles. Pure Pu-238 for radioisotope thermoelectric generators which power some spacecraft is produced by neutron capture on neptunium-237 but plutonium from spent nuclear fuel can contain as much as a few percent of Pu-238, from either 237Np, alpha decay of 242Cm, or (n,2n) reactions.
• Plutonium-239 is the most important isotope of plutonium, with a half-life of 24,100 years. Pu-239 and Pu-241 are fissile, meaning that the nuclei of its atoms can break apart by being bombarded by slow moving thermal neutrons, releasing energy, gamma radiation and more neutrons. It can therefore sustain a nuclear chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Pu-239 is synthesized by irradiating uranium-238 with neutrons in a nuclear reactor, then recovered via nuclear reprocessing of the fuel. Further neutron capture produces successively heavier isotopes.
• Plutonium-240 has a high rate of spontaneous fission, raising the background neutron radiation of plutonium containing it. Plutonium is graded by proportion of Pu-240: weapons grade (< 7%), fuel grade (7–19%) and reactor grade (> 19%). Lower grades are less suited for nuclear weapons and thermal reactors but can fuel fast reactors.
• Plutonium-241 is fissile, but also beta decays with a halflife of 14 years to americium-241.
• Plutonium-242 is not fissile, not very fertile (requiring 3 more neutron captures to become fissile), has a low neutron capture cross section, and a longer halflife than any of the lighter isotopes.
• Plutonium-244 is the most stable isotope of plutonium, with a half-life of about 80 million years, long enough to be found in trace quantities in nature. It is not significantly produced in nuclear reactors because Pu-243 has a short halflife, but some is produced in nuclear explosions.