The assignment for this module asks us to discuss an issue that the United States is currently dealing with: the safest and most effective way to deal with its large stockpile of Plutonium. First, it is important to understand what Plutonium is. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA plutonium is considered a man-made, radioactive metal. However, scientists have also found small quantities of what appears to be naturally-occurring plutonium produced under “highly unusual geologic circumstances.” (3). Plutonium has an Atomic Number 94, and is most commonly found as radioisotopes 238, 239, and 240. It is created from the uranium that is present in nuclear reactors. The chemical process involves uranium-238, which absorbs neutrons, changing them to uranium-239. The decayed form of uranium-239 is plutonium-239. So, if plutonium is mostly man-made, what’s its purpose? The EPA states that most of the current quantity of plutonium was produced in special maximizing reactors for nuclear weaponry. About 100 metric tons of plutonium were produced in nearly 45 years between the 1940s and 1980s. Plutonium’s physical properties include being a silver/gray color that turns yellow when exposed to air, being solid normally, and being chemically reactive; its chemical properties include having at least 15 isotopes (all radioactive) and having a long half-life (88 years, 24,100 years, and 6,560 years for the most common isotopes). At least one isotope of plutonium gives off heat, due to its radioactivity. Plutonium was used in the most famous example of nuclear weaponry: the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 (Pu-239). Plutonium’s role in a nuclear bomb is that it goes through nuclear fission and produces a vast amount of ener...
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...o its long half-life (3).
After reviewing multiple proposals for disposing of this plutonium waste, I would think it would be wise for the United States to either continue to put it deep in the ground or find possible isolated islands or landmass that will not be at all close to human contact and set up those areas for waste disposal facilities and then wait for the radioactive decay to take place.
Works Cited
(1) Eubanks, Lucy, Catherine Middlecamp, Carl Heltzel, and Steven Keller. Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.
(2) "Plutonium Disposal." Nci.org. Nuclear Control Institute. Web. 16 July 2011. .
(3) "Radiation Protection." Epa.gov. US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 16 July 2011. .