Chemical element with atomic number 94 and symbol Pu, located in group 3 of the periodic table, belonging to the actinide series; Being the second transuranic element discovered, it is a radioactive metal, silver in color and has 5 different crystalline structures as characteristics; having 16 isotopes and all radioactive, it is very toxic, found in very small quantities in uranium mines, but it is obtained artificially from the decay of neptunium.
It is used as fuel in nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons, and nuclear batteries. It is silver and shiny, but it loses its color when it oxidizes very quickly, changing its color to opaque green and yellow tints. Discovered by the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, being Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1940, but it was until the University of California, USA; It was shaped as it is now known artificially, by scientists including Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, JW Kennedy and AC Wahl in 1941.
Its name was placed by the planet Pluto, and related by the Roman God of death, it is a very chemically active metal, being composed of all non-metallic elements, it dissolves in acid and reacts to water. Plutonium is produced by burning nuclear fuel in reactors and is used for explosives, being one of the main ingredients in nuclear weapons of mass destruction, its property is suitable for this fatal human purpose; It is rarely used in thermoelectric heat reactors such as spacecraft, meteorological satellites, but as its power is very high, they are studying the possibility of using it as fuel.; however, it is very risky for humans since it can irradiate internal organs when inhaled even though its radiation does not penetrate the skin, causing lung cancer, causing acute poisoning and death.
The Plutonium has been long used as an explosive, releasing it into the atmosphere by atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons and accidents in those same places of production of weapons, being released into the atmosphere and the air is returned to the land and ends up in the soils, rivers, organic crops, these being the majority since the plants absorb these levels of plutonium, although low levels lead to lesser poisoning of animals and humans.
