
See more

How many protons and neutrons are in plutonium?
94Plutonium / Atomic number
How many neutrons are present in plutonium?
150 neutronsPlutonium is a member of the actinide group in the periodic table. Plutonium atoms have 94 electrons and 94 protons with 2 valence electrons in the outer shell. There are 150 neutrons in the most abundant isotope.
How many electrons are in plutonium?
2,8,18,32,24,8,2Plutonium / Electrons per shell
How many neutrons are in plutonium 246?
152 neutronsThere are fifteen plutonium isotopes, ranging from plutonium 232 (94 protons and 138 neutrons) to plutonium 246 (94 protons and 152 neutrons).
How much plutonium is in a nuke?
Nuclear weapons typically contain 93 percent or more plutonium-239, less than 7 percent plutonium-240, and very small quantities of other plutonium isotopes.
What would happen if you touched plutonium?
Because it emits alpha particles, plutonium is most dangerous when inhaled. When plutonium particles are inhaled, they lodge in the lung tissue. The alpha particles can kill lung cells, which causes scarring of the lungs, leading to further lung disease and cancer.
How do U find neutrons?
The mass number, 40, is the sum of the protons and the neutrons. To find the number of neutrons, subtract the number of protons from the mass number. number of neutrons=40−19=21.
Can you hold plutonium?
A: Plutonium is, in fact, a metal very like uranium. If you hold it [in] your hand (and I've held tons of it my hand, a pound or two at a time), it's heavy, like lead. It's toxic, like lead or arsenic, but not much more so.
What does plutonium smell like?
Despite its stinky reputation, Plutonium doesn't have a foul smell. In fact, not many people have the opportunity to smell it. That's because plutonium is so poisonous that if you inhaled it its radiation would have you dead, give you cancer, or both.
Is plutonium-238 stable?
Be stable at high temperatures, so its characteristics remain essentially unchanged over many years. Have a long enough half-life (at least 15 to 100 years), so that it can generate for many years sufficient heat for transformation into electricity.
Is plutonium 240 stable?
Plutonium is not a stable element. As plutonium decays, it releases radiation and forms decay products. For example, the decay products of plutonium-238 and plutonium-239 are uranium- 234 and uranium-235. The decay process continues until a stable, non-radioactive decay product is formed.
Is plutonium a gas?
Plutonium is a chemical element with symbol Pu and atomic number 94. Classified as an actinide, Plutonium is a solid at room temperature.
How many neutrons are in plutonium 244?
150Plutonium-244GeneralProtons (Z)94Neutrons (N)150Nuclide dataNatural abundanceTrace13 more rows
How do U find neutrons?
The mass number, 40, is the sum of the protons and the neutrons. To find the number of neutrons, subtract the number of protons from the mass number. number of neutrons=40−19=21.
How many neutrons does uranium have?
143 neutronsEnergy from the uranium atom The nucleus of the U-235 atom comprises 92 protons and 143 neutrons (92 + 143 = 235).
How many electrons does plutonium 244 have?
Plutonium-244 is composed of 94 protons, 150 neutrons, and 94 electrons.
How many protons does Plutonium have?
Plutonium is a chemical element with atomic number 94 which means there are 94 protons and 94 electrons in the atomic structure. The chemical symbol for Plutonium is Pu.
What is the number of neutrons in an atom?
The total number of neutrons in the nucleus of an atom is called the neutron number of the atom and is given the symbol N. Neutron number plus atomic number equals atomic mass number: N+Z=A. The difference between the neutron number and the atomic number is known as the neutron excess: D = N – Z = A – 2Z.
How many electrons does neon have?
Neon is a chemical element with atomic number 10 which means there are 10 protons and 10 electrons in the atomic structure. The chemical symbol for Neon is Ne.
How many protons and electrons are in hydrogen?
Hydrogen is a chemical element with atomic number 1 which means there are 1 protons and 1 electrons in the atomic structure. The chemical symbol for Hydrogen is H.
How are atomic nuclei determined?
Properties of atomic nuclei (atomic mass, nuclear cross-sections) are determined by the number of protons and number of neutrons (neutron number). It must be noted, especially nuclear cross-sections may vary by many orders from nuclide with the neutron number N to nuclide with the neutron number N+1. For example, actinides with odd neutron number are usually fissile (fissionable with slow neutrons) while actinides with even neutron number are usually not fissile (but are fissionable with fast neutrons). Heavy nuclei with an even number of protons and an even number of neutrons are (due to Pauli exclusion principle) very stable thanks to the occurrence of ‘paired spin’. On the other hand, nuclei with an odd number of protons and neutrons are mostly unstable.
What are the two forces that make up the nucleus?
Atomic nuclei consist of protons and neutrons, which attract each other through the nuclear force, while protons repel each other via the electric force due to their positive charge. These two forces compete, leading to various stability of nuclei. There are only certain combinations of neutrons and protons, which forms stable nuclei.
How do neutrons stabilize the nucleus?
Neutrons stabilize the nucleus, because they attract each other and protons , which helps offset the electrical repulsion between protons. As a result, as the number of protons increases, an increasing ratio of neutrons to protons is needed to form a stable nucleus. If there are too many or too few neutrons for a given number of protons, the resulting nucleus is not stable and it undergoes radioactive decay . Unstable isotopes decay through various radioactive decay pathways, most commonly alpha decay , beta decay , gamma decay or electron capture. Many other rare types of decay, such as spontaneous fission or neutron emission are known.
What is the atomic number of Plutonium?
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94 . It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states.
What is the percentage of plutonium in a reactor?
Weapons-grade plutonium contains less than 7% plutonium-240. Fuel-grade plutonium contains from 7% to less than 19%, and power reactor-grade contains 19% or more plutonium-240.
How much does a plutonium ring weigh?
A ring of weapons-grade 99.96% pure electrorefined plutonium, enough for one bomb core. The ring weighs 5.3 kg, is ca. 11 cm in diameter and its shape helps with criticality safety.
How many allotropes does plutonium have?
Plutonium normally has six allotropes and forms a seventh (zeta, ζ) at high temperature within a limited pressure range. These allotropes, which are different structural modifications or forms of an element, have very similar internal energies but significantly varying densities and crystal structures. This makes plutonium very sensitive to changes in temperature, pressure, or chemistry, and allows for dramatic volume changes following phase transitions from one allotropic form to another. The densities of the different allotropes vary from 16.00 g/cm 3 to 19.86 g/cm 3.
What is the most common form of radioactive decay for plutonium?
Alpha decay, the release of a high-energy helium nucleus, is the most common form of radioactive decay for plutonium. A 5 kg mass of 239 Pu contains about 12.5 × 1024 atoms. With a half-life of 24,100 years, about 11.5 × 1012 of its atoms decay each second by emitting a 5.157 MeV alpha particle.
How long does Plutonium-238 last?
Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years and emits alpha particles. It is a heat source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power some spacecraft. Plutonium isotopes are expensive and inconvenient to separate, so particular isotopes are usually manufactured in specialized reactors.
Where is plutonium stored?
The U.S. planned to store plutonium in this way at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, which is about 100 miles (160 km) north-east of Las Vegas , Nevada . On March 5, 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing "the Yucca Mountain site no longer was viewed as an option for storing reactor waste".
