What is Plutonium?
Plutonium is the 94th element. It was discovered in 1940 by Glenn Seaborg. In its pure form it is a silvery-white metal and has chemical properties like those of tungsten.
Plutonium is found in the uranium ore pitchblende in extremely small amounts. Man-made plutonium was first produced, however, by bombardment of the element uranium by atomic particles known as deuterons. Actually the element neptunium is formed first (93rd element), and a radioactive decay takes place to form plutonium. Plutonium is important in atomic energy because fission can occur when a neutron enters the plutonium nucleus.
