Plutonium

Plutonium         Plutonium is a radioactive metallic element. Although it is occasionally found in nature, mostly all of our plutonium is produced artificially in a lab. The official chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, coming from its first and third letters. Its atomic number is ninety-four. Plutonium is able to maintain its solid state until very high temperatures, melting at six hundred and forty degrees Celsius, and boiling at three thousand four hundred and sixty degrees. …

…decays with a half-life of about thirteen years emitting negatively charged beta particles, or electrons. It then converts to Am-241, an isotope of americium, which emits alpha particles for 470 years, before turning into Am-242, which converts to Cm-242, an isotope of curium, in only sixteen hours. The Cm-242 emits alpha particles for about 162 days before ending the decay of Plutonium 241.                   Chemical Equation for Producing Plutonium: 92U-238 ----> 92U-239 ----> 93Np-239 ----> 94Pu-239