What is plutonium used for in nuclear reactors?

Plutonium-239 is primarily used as a fuel to power nuclear reactors. In fact, it enters into the composition of MOX fuel – mixed uranium and plutonium oxide. By combining the Pu 239 produced by nuclear reactors with depleted uranium, MOX can be used to fabricate one new fuel assembly from every 8 used fuel assemblies.

Is plutonium used for nuclear bombs?

Most of the uranium used in current nuclear weapons is approximately 93.5 percent enriched uranium-235. 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 are 5 things plutonium is used for?

Plutonium is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power spacecraft. The element has been used in nuclear weapons, including the Trinity test and the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Plutonium-238 was once used to power heart pacemakers.

Why is plutonium used for atomic bomb?

It could be used as an explosive in atomic bombs or as a fuel in reactors. At the same time produced and burned in nuclear reactors, it offers a virtually inexhaustible energy source. More easily fissile than uranium-235, plutonium is wanted for making atomic weapons or to propel aircraft carriers and submarines.

Why only uranium and plutonium is used in nuclear fission?

Nuclear fission. Fission may take place in any of the heavy nuclei after capture of a neutron. However, low-energy (slow, or thermal) neutrons are able to cause fission only in those isotopes of uranium and plutonium whose nuclei contain odd numbers of neutrons (e.g. U-233, U-235, and Pu-239).

Is plutonium stronger than uranium?

Plutonium-239, the isotope found in the spent MOX fuel, is much more radioactive than the depleted Uranium-238 in the fuel. Plutonium emits alpha radiation, a highly ionizing form of radiation, rather than beta or gamma radiation.