What is plutonium???Why is it used in hydrogen bombs???

Question

Thank you for your detailed answer...tom science

Answer 1

plutonium is a fissionable element. it undergoes fission to break up into smaller elements and gives out large amount of energy. generally in the form of heat.
hydrogen bombs work on the principle of nuclear fusion. which is also the reaction taking place in the Sun. but to only initiate a fusion, vast amount of energy is required which is then provided by the fission of plutonium in a hydrogen bomb.

so the series goes like this:
plutonium undergoes fission and releases huge energy. the energy thus released initiates fusion reaction of hydrogen. and booom.

Answer 2

Plutonium is a fissionable material, like uranium, that can sustain a chain reaction at critical mass. If surraunded by deuterium, tritium, and hydrogen, these three form helium as the plutonium explodes releasing tremendous energy. Developed by Dr Edward Teller.

Answer 3

plutonium is a radiioactive metal

it has atomic number 94 and a half life of about 24000 years

the wikipedia has this information on plutonium use in atomic bombs:

The isotope 239Pu is a key fissile component in nuclear weapons, due to its ease of fissioning and availability. The critical mass for an unreflected sphere of plutonium is 16 kg, but through the use of a neutron-reflecting tamper the pit of plutonium in a fission bomb is reduced to 10 kg, which is a sphere with a diameter of 10 cm. The Manhattan Project "Fat Man" type plutonium bombs, using explosive compression of Pu to significantly higher densities than normal, were able to function with plutonium cores of only 6.2 kg.[6] Complete detonation of plutonium will produce an explosion equivalent to the explosion of 20 kilotons of trinitrotoluene (TNT) per kilogram. (See also nuclear weapon design.)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium

Answer 4

plutonium is a radioactive metal. in a hydrogen bomb, fusion reactions are the main source of energy. as fuson reactions require tremendous amount of energy to initiate, we must give a potential energy source. plutonium being radioactive acan be used to carry out fission reactions by bombarding it with other projectiles. when the fisiion reaction releases a lot of energy, that energy is used in initiating the hydrogen fusuion reactions.

Answer 5

For a material to be useful in a fission reaction, it needs a high atomic mass, it needs to be somewhat unstable and it needs to emit neutrons when it splits. The high mass is so that the constituent parts are more stable than the larger atom (hence energy is released). It needs to be somewhat unstable so that it will split without a huge amount of energy to get it started and it needs to emit neutrons so that after is splits, there are neutrons available to split the next atom ("chain reaction"). Plutonium and Uranium are good canidates for this.

Answer 6

Plutonium is a radioactive element capable of fission.
All H bombs(or Neutron bombs) are fusion bombs and need an A bomb as a trigger... Look for: "radioactive materials/elements"; "fission"; "fusion" in a good encyclopedia. have you tried Wikipedia? (This is a short cut, look somewhere else)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon
For details you'll need to do a lot of reading...

Answer 7

a human-made radioactive element heavier than uranium. Plutonium-239 is the plutonium isotope commonly used in nuclear weapons; it emits highly dangerous alpha radiation and has a halflife of 24,000 years

Answer 8

Evening! plutonium is Radiactive element.The very reason to why it is used in hydrogen bomb is because of it attacking power(fueling)

Answer 9

Plutonium used to be a fairy tale component during the 40's 50's & 60's that the ruling class used to treath humanity with... Now it's been replaced with aids and the arabs... just like a dragon on the fairy tales, for more information go to Hiroshima.com

Answer 10

plutonium
(Pu), radioactive chemical element of the actinide series in Group IIIb of the periodic table, atomic number 94. It is the most important transuranium element because of its use as fuel in certain types of nuclear reactors and as an ingredient in nuclear weapons. Plutonium, warm because of energy released in alpha decay, is a silvery metal that takes on a yellow tarnish in air. The element was first detected (1940) as the isotope plutonium-238 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur C. Wahl, who produced it by deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the 60-inch cyclotron at Berkeley, Calif. Traces of plutonium have subsequently been found in uranium ores, where it is not primeval but naturally produced by neutron irradiation.

All plutonium isotopes are radioactive. The most important is plutonium-239 because it is fissionable, has a relatively long half-life (24,360 years), and can be readily produced in large quantities in breeder reactors by neutron irradiation of plentiful but nonfissile uranium-238. Critical mass (the amount that will spontaneously explode when brought together) must be considered when handling quantities in excess of 300 grams (2/3 lb). The critical mass of plutonium-239 is only about one-third that of uranium-235.

Plutonium and all elements of higher atomic number are radiological poisons because of their high rate of alpha emission and their specific absorption in bone marrow. The maximum amount of plutonium-239 that can be indefinitely maintained in an adult without significant injury is 0.008 microcuries (equal to 0.13 micrograms). Longer-lived isotopes plutonium-242 and plutonium-244 are valuable in chemical and metallurgical research. Plutonium-238 can be manufactured to harness its heat of radioactive decay to operate thermoelectric and thermionic devices that are small and lightweight but long-lived (the half-life of plutonium-238 is 86 years).

Plutonium exhibits six forms differing in crystal structure and density (allotropes); the alpha form exists at room temperatures. It has the highest electrical resistivity of any metallic element (145 microhm-centimetres). Chemically reactive, it dissolves in acids and can exist in four oxidation states as ions of characteristic colour in aqueous solution: Pu3+, blue-lavender; Pu4+, yellow-brown; PuO+2, pink (?); PuO22+, pink-orange. Very many compounds of plutonium have been prepared, often starting from the dioxide (PuO2), the first compound of any synthetic element to be separated in pure form and in weighable amounts (1942).

atomic number 94
stablest isotope 244
melting point 639.5{degree} C (1,183.1{degree} F)
boiling point 3,235{degree} C (5,855{degree} F)
specific gravity (alpha) 19.84 (25{degree} C)
valence 3,4,5,6
electronic config. 2-8-18-32-24-8-2 or (Rn)5f 67s2