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.
The density of Plutonium, at twenty degrees centigrade, is 19.86 grams per cubic centimeter. Plutonium was discovered, in the laboratory, by Glenn Theodore Seaborg, and his associate Edward M. McMillan. The two shared the Nobel prize in 1951 for their discoveries of Plutonium, Americium (Am), Curium (Cm), Berkelium (Bk), and Californium (Cf). In addition, Seaborg later contributed to the discovery of three more radioactive elements, Einsteinium (Es), Mendelevium (Md), and
Nobelium (No). Plutonium was Seaborg’s first discovery. Its name came from
Pluto, the planet after Neptune for which Neptunium was named. In 1940, at the
University of California at Berkeley, he bombarded a sample of Uranium with deuterons, the nuclei in atoms of deuterium, transmuting it into plutonium.
Shortly after, Seaborg was able to isolate plutonium 239, an isotope used in atomic bombs.
Plutonium is a highly dangerous and poisonous element because it rapidly gives off radiation in the form of alpha particles. Alpha particles, which are identical to the nucleus of a helium atom, consist of two protons and two neutrons tightly bound together. Although the particles can only travel about five centimeters in the air, they can cause great damage when the enter the body, causing cancer and other serious health problems. Beyond the danger of their radiation, Plutonium will spontaneously explode when a certain amount, called critical mass, is kept together. Soon after the discovery of Plutonium, it was discovered that at least two oxidation states existed. It is now known to exist in oxidation states of +3, +4, +5, and +6.
Currently, there are fifteen known isotopes of Plutonium, with mass numbers ranging between 232 and 246. The most important isotope is plutonium 239, or Pu-239. When struck by a neutron, this isotope undergoes a process called fission. In fission, When struck by a neutron, the nucleus of the plutonium atom is split into two nearly equal parts, and energy is released. Although the energy released by one atom is not much, the splitting of the nucleus releases more neutrons, which strike more plutonium atoms. This process, called a chain- reaction, produces enormous amounts of energy. This energy is often used to power nuclear reactors, or to provide the energy for nuclear weapons.
The Nuclear Metals Incorporation or the Starmet Corporation is located on a 2229 Main Street in Concord, Massachusetts. The site produced depleted uranium products for armor piercing ammunition. They also created metal powders for medical applications, photocopiers, and specialty metal products, such as beryllium tubing for aerospace needs. From1958 to 1985, the holding basin that contained all the industries waste such as depleted uranium and copper was unlined, which caused issues.
are generally small, with an average width of a few millimeters to several centimeters in
Atomic weapons were used in the Pacific against Japan. President Truman has several different reasons for using the atomic bombs, such as signaling to the Russians, accelerating the end of the war, revenging for Pearl Harbor attack, etc. I believe the atomic bombing of Japan was necessary to end the war quickly as well as the stop the advance of Russia into Asia. At that time, the Russians had a plan to spread their influence and take territory in Asia. The atomic bombing put a stop to their expansion. It could also be considered as a threat to other belligerent countries because of its extremely destructive power. The explosion was a warning to those who wanted to attack or declare war on the United States. Also, it might help relieve Americans’
Since there were many issues with the spheres they moved on to the next closest thing they could drop accurately a very wide but not very tall beer barrel shape which was composed of an outer barrel shaped case which was meant to make it bounce better and an inner metal cylinder which held the charge. This designs main flaw was its outside case was made of wood which would shatter on impact so they tried to salvage the idea because they did not think the inner cylinder case could withstand the bounces and hitting the dam. To salvage the idea they tried to better reinforce the barrel using more bands going along the outside of the case which was proven a futile attempt. After the barrel design was given up on they decided to try the cylinder casing bare. The inner casing did not break up on impact like they worried and so they decided to use the cylinder design which was much easier to manufacture and did not require any special loading equipment except for the bomb holder which hung under the plane and was used to spin the bomb while the plane was flying using a hydraulic motor and a belt system. Once the bare cylinder was the final design they could train the crews and design the bomb interior and put in safeguards to ensure the Germans could not use their
When it comes to the topic of explosions, most people are not as aware of blast overpressure as they are about fragmentation material. Fragmentation material is the items that are thrown though the air at very high speeds from an explosion. The fragmentation is designed to cause injuries to the human body. Most of the time an individual is able to see and hear this material coming through the air. Contrary to fragmentation, blast overpressure is silent and can cause injuries inside the human body that cannot be seen externally. Stephen Wolf explains, “Although most blast-related injuries (eg, fragmentation injuries from improvised explosive devices and standard military explosives) can be managed in a similar manner to typical penetrating or blunt traumatic injuries, injuries caused by the blast pressure wave itself cannot” (406). Imagine ripples in the water, when you place a drop in the center there are waves that move out from the center point of the drop. This is similar to ho...
The use and management of radioactive materials is not a topic that is generally discussed in abundance to everyday citizens. Many people do not know what radioactive waste is or even the effect that it can have on the human body. Radioactive waste is a type of waste that has some type of radioactive material inside of it. The managing of this radioactive waste is extremely important because it can cause damage to living tissue. Without a place to properly dispose of or contain, the radioactive waste can contaminate our water, food, air, or even our land. If this happened it would be detrimental to all human’s health, causing many different problems throughout the world not only with the health of the population, but problems with the environment as well. Therefore it is vital that we have somewhere to put these radioactive wastes.
Since the dawn of civilization, all living (and some non-living) things have needed energy. When humans discovered fire, the first form of harnessed energy, it made it easier to stay warm, prepare food, make weapons, etc. Since then, humankind has been inventing new ways to harness energy and use it to our advantage. Now-a-days, people in most nations depend extremely heavily on fossil fuels – to work, travel, regulate temperature of homes, produce food, clothing, and furniture, as well as other power industries. Not only are these fossil fuels dominating our society and creating economic vulnerability, but they also produce waste that causes a number of social and environmental concerns. The waste from these fuels leads to acid rain, smog, and climate change. It also releases sulfur dioxide as well as other air pollutants that are very harmful to the human respiratory system (Morris, 1999, p. ix). There are other alternative sustainable energy sources including solar, hydroelectric, wind, and biomass. However, the main source aside from fossil fuel is nuclear energy from controlled nuclear reactions (where nuclei of radioisotopes become stable or nonradioactive by undergoing changes) in a nuclear power plant. Nuclear power produces enormous amounts of energy to serve a community. Unfortunately, nuclear energy has its own set of problems – a big one being its waste. The spent fuel from nuclear plants is radioactive. This means that it emits radiation, or penetrating rays and particles emitted by a radioactive source. Ionizing radiation is known to cause cancer, and therefore makes anyone who lives near spent nuclear waste facilities vulnerable to this incurable disease. The disposal of nuclear waste is a global issue...
It has been described as a sharp, electric shock through the leg (Jackson & Simpson, 2006).... ... middle of paper ... ... Australian Bureau of Statistics. a.
...st spacecraft. The particles vaporize on impact with solids and pass through gases, but can be trapped in aerogels.
However, a meteor impact is a very common occurrence; but it is extremely rare for significantly sized impacts to occur. On average; there is a 1mm diameter meteorite impact every 30 seconds, a 1 meter diameter object every year, 100 meter diameter object every 10,000 and 10km diameter object every 100,000,000 years (Nelson 2014).
In the low Earth orbit is below the 2,000,000 m space junk circle the Earth around at 7 to 8 km/s. But this is only the low sped, some of them will high to 13-14km/s. So the average impact speed between two objects is 10km/s. Also, some of space debris travel the upper space above the earth orbit, the
The value of luck cannot be overstated. A bullet may leave the muzzle of a weapon at over a thousand feet per second and slam into a concrete wall. This may deform the round beyond all recognition. Just about anything can and does happen to flying projectiles.
The Industrial Revolution sparked a need for large sources of energy. Human and animal labor could not provide the power necessary to power industrial machinery, railroads, and ships. The steam engine and later the internal combustion engine provided the bulk of the energy required by the industrial age. Today most nations are still heavily reliant on energy that comes from combustion. Usually coal, petrolium, and natural gas are used. Some hydroelectric, wind power, and nuclear fission sources are used, but in the US they accounted for less than 20% of the total energy consumption in 1997 (1). Many experts are worried that natural resources such as coal and petrolium are being depleted faster than they are being replenished, which could result in an energy crisis. Nuclear fission produces highly radioactive waste that is expensive to dispose of properly. Nuclear fusion reactors would produce much less radioactive waste and would be more efficient than nuclear fission, but to date there have been no nuclear fusion reactors that have generated usable energy output. Why is fusion power, which could be very beneficial, so hard to come by?