Plutonium
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plutonium is a chemical element. It is a higly radioactive metal. It has the chemical symbol Pu. It has the atomic number 94. It is the metal used in most atomic weapons now. The chemical element plutonium has some different isotopes. The most important isotope of plutonium is 239Pu (or plutonium-239). Plutonium-239 has a half-life (a half-life is how long it takes for half of something to decay) of 24,110 years. It can be made from natural uranium and is fissile. The isotope that has the longest half-life is 244Pu (or plutonium-244). Plutonium-244 has a half-life of about 80 million years. The half life of 244Pu is very long so some of this isotope of plutonium can be found in very small amounts in nature.
