Parents of boys should be prepared for various emergency situations with their children; it doesn’t even hurt to know what to do if your son finds plutonium.
What does plutonium look like?
First you need to imagine what what your son will find will look like. It is a very, very heavy silver-colored metal in powder form that shines brilliantly when cleaned. But thanks to its electronegative properties, it does not remain shiny for long: first it fades, then becomes covered with a light yellow film, which gradually turns into dark purple.
Think about what else might look something like the silvery white powder, because you can't find plutonium near a swing or a slide. And even if he climbs a construction site, the boy would rather become the owner of a piece of wire or a nail than a handful of plutonium.
If, nevertheless, a child brings home what you think is the described heavy metal, you need to urgently call the police or the local department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, because the substance is radioactive, dangerous, which must be quickly removed and hidden away.
You need to react to a “find” immediately. This is not a life situation in which you can call a friend and find out. After all, cucumbers, even sour ones, are dangerous at most due to acute diarrhea. And if you are smart enough not to eat them after the lid has been blown off, then in general they are not a hindrance to your health.
The effect of plutonium on the human body
Plutonium (Pu) is not as harmless as sour cucumbers. It is a heavy metal and therefore must be a chemically toxic substance. However, this property is poorly described, since the main danger lies in radiotoxicity. Its toxicity is due to alpha radioactivity.
An alpha particle is dangerous to the body only if its source is in the human body. Simply put, for a radioactive effect to occur, this metal must be ingested. Externally, Pu affects humans with neutrons and gamma rays, but does not cause much harm due to their low level.
Alpha particles in the human body damage only those tissues with which they come into direct contact. At high levels of radiation, acute poisoning develops and a toxic effect immediately appears. Low levels of radiation damage the body gradually, creating a predisposition to cancer.
Pu is poorly absorbed in the digestive tract. Even if you take the metal in the form of a soluble salt, it does not tend to be absorbed, but mixes with the intestinal contents. Much plutonium does not enter the body from contaminated water; it precipitates from aqueous solutions, forming insoluble compounds.
To die from acute exposure within a few days or a week, you need to eat 500 mg of Pu. At the same time, it should be in a well-chopped form. Death from pulmonary edema within up to 10 days threatens individuals who inhale 100 mg of plutonium into the lungs. Smaller doses of Pu in the body create fertile ground for the emergence and progression of cancer.
Do people need
The 239Pu isotope is used in the form of nuclear fuel for power reactors that operate on fast and thermal neutrons. The 239Pu isotope is also indispensable in the production of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear power plants scattered around the globe produce about 15% of the world's electricity.
Atomic electric batteries containing Pu-236 have a service life of up to 5 years. Doctors use such batteries in pacemakers, which are sewn into the chest of patients and cause the heart to contract.
Pu-238 is an essential power source for spacecraft that humans use to explore space.
Fascinating facts
Curious boys can be told memorable facts about plutonium, which they are unlikely to be lucky enough to find in real life.
Marine organisms strongly accumulate this element; the accumulating capacity decreases in the series mixed plankton - algae - fish stomach - starfish - fish bones.
Pu-244 is a long-lived isotope of transuranium elements. Its half-life is 82.8 million years!
If you add plutonium to the alloy, you get a casting without a single crack. This property is actively used by metallurgists.
Nuclear bomb charges are made from plutonium. The metal is so heavy that a small ball of plutonium, which can be hidden in a 10*10 cm cube, weighs 5-6 kilograms.
Every parent would like to wish that their son does not find plutonium and does not bring it home, but plays peacefully with more harmless toys.
Video: Plutonium-239 from RID-1
Humanity has always been in search of new sources of energy that can solve many problems. However, they are not always safe. So, in particular, those widely used today, although they are capable of generating simply colossal amounts of electrical energy that everyone needs, still carry a mortal danger. But, in addition to peaceful purposes, some countries on our planet have learned to use it for military purposes, especially to create nuclear warheads. This article will discuss the basis of such destructive weapons, the name of which is weapons-grade plutonium.
Brief information
This compact form of the metal contains a minimum of 93.5% of the 239Pu isotope. Weapons-grade plutonium was named so so that it could be distinguished from its “reactor counterpart.” In principle, plutonium is always formed in absolutely any nuclear reactor, which, in turn, operates on low-enriched or natural uranium, containing, for the most part, the 238U isotope.
Application in the military industry
Weapons-grade plutonium 239Pu is the basis of nuclear weapons. At the same time, the use of isotopes with mass numbers 240 and 242 is irrelevant, since they create a very high neutron background, which ultimately complicates the creation and design of highly effective nuclear ammunition. In addition, the plutonium isotopes 240Pu and 241Pu have a significantly shorter half-life compared to 239Pu, so plutonium parts become very hot. It is in this regard that engineers are forced to additionally add elements to remove excess heat into nuclear weapons. By the way, 239Pu in its pure form is warmer than the human body. It is also impossible not to take into account the fact that the products of the decay process of heavy isotopes subject the crystal lattice of the metal to harmful changes, and this quite naturally changes the configuration of plutonium parts, which, in the end, can cause a complete failure of a nuclear explosive device.
By and large, all of the above difficulties can be overcome. And in practice, tests have already been carried out more than once on the basis of “reactor” plutonium. But it should be understood that in nuclear weapons their compactness, low dead weight, durability and reliability are by no means the least important. In this regard, they use exclusively weapons-grade plutonium.
Design features of production reactors
Almost all plutonium in Russia was produced in reactors equipped with a graphite moderator. Each of the reactors is built around cylindrically assembled blocks of graphite.
When assembled, the graphite blocks have special slots between them to ensure continuous circulation of the coolant, which uses nitrogen. The assembled structure also has vertically located channels created for the passage of water cooling and fuel through them. The assembly itself is rigidly supported by a structure with openings under the channels used to discharge already irradiated fuel. Moreover, each of the channels is located in a thin-walled tube cast from a lightweight and extremely strong aluminum alloy. Most of the described channels have 70 fuel rods. Cooling water flows directly around the fuel rods, removing excess heat from them.
Increasing the power of production reactors
Initially, the first Mayak reactor operated with a thermal power of 100 MW. However, the main leader of the Soviet nuclear weapons program made a proposal that the reactor should operate at a power of 170-190 MW in winter, and 140-150 MW in summer. This approach allowed the reactor to produce almost 140 grams of precious plutonium per day.
In 1952, full-fledged research work was carried out in order to increase the production capacity of operating reactors using the following methods:
- By increasing the flow of water used for cooling and flowing through the cores of a nuclear plant.
- By increasing resistance to the phenomenon of corrosion that occurs near the channel liner.
- Reducing the rate of graphite oxidation.
- Increasing temperature inside fuel cells.
As a result, the throughput of circulating water increased significantly after the gap between the fuel and the channel walls was increased. We also managed to get rid of corrosion. For this, the most suitable aluminum alloys were selected and sodium bichromate began to be actively added, which ultimately increased the softness of the cooling water (pH became about 6.0-6.2). The oxidation of graphite ceased to be a pressing problem after nitrogen was used to cool it (previously only air was used).
In the late 1950s, the innovations were fully realized in practice, reducing the highly unnecessary inflation of uranium caused by radiation, significantly reducing the heat hardening of uranium rods, improving cladding resistance, and increasing production quality control.
Production at Mayak
"Chelyabinsk-65" is one of those very secret plants where weapons-grade plutonium was created. The enterprise had several reactors, and we will take a closer look at each of them.
Reactor A
The installation was designed and created under the leadership of the legendary N. A. Dollezhal. It operated with a power of 100 MW. The reactor had 1149 vertically arranged control and fuel channels in a graphite block. The total weight of the structure was about 1050 tons. Almost all channels (except 25) were loaded with uranium, the total mass of which was 120-130 tons. 17 channels were used for control rods, and 8 for experiments. The maximum design heat release of the fuel cell was 3.45 kW. At first, the reactor produced about 100 grams of plutonium per day. The first metallic plutonium was produced on April 16, 1949.
Technological disadvantages
Almost immediately, quite serious problems were identified, which consisted of corrosion of aluminum liners and coating of fuel cells. The uranium rods also swelled and became damaged, causing cooling water to leak directly into the reactor core. After each leak, the reactor had to be stopped for up to 10 hours in order to dry the graphite with air. In January 1949, the channel liners were replaced. After this, the installation was launched on March 26, 1949.
Weapons-grade plutonium, the production of which at reactor A was accompanied by all sorts of difficulties, was produced in the period 1950-1954 with an average unit power of 180 MW. Subsequent operation of the reactor began to be accompanied by more intensive use, which quite naturally led to more frequent shutdowns (up to 165 times a month). As a result, the reactor was shut down in October 1963 and resumed operation only in the spring of 1964. It completely completed its campaign in 1987 and over the entire period of many years of operation it produced 4.6 tons of plutonium.
AB reactors
It was decided to build three AB reactors at the Chelyabinsk-65 enterprise in the fall of 1948. Their production capacity was 200-250 grams of plutonium per day. The chief designer of the project was A. Savin. Each reactor consisted of 1996 channels, 65 of which were control channels. The installations used a technical innovation - each channel was equipped with a special coolant leak detector. This move made it possible to change the liners without stopping the operation of the reactor itself.
The first year of operation of the reactors showed that they produced about 260 grams of plutonium per day. However, already from the second year of operation, the capacity was gradually increased, and already in 1963 its figure was 600 MW. After the second overhaul, the problem with the liners was completely resolved, and the power was already 1200 MW with an annual production of plutonium of 270 kilograms. These indicators remained until the reactors were completely closed.
AI-IR reactor
The Chelyabinsk enterprise used this installation from December 22, 1951 to May 25, 1987. In addition to uranium, the reactor also produced cobalt-60 and polonium-210. Initially, the facility produced tritium, but later began to produce plutonium.
Also, the plant for processing weapons-grade plutonium had in operation reactors operating on heavy water and a single light water reactor (its name was “Ruslan”).
Siberian giant
"Tomsk-7" was the name of the plant, which housed five reactors for the creation of plutonium. Each of the units used graphite to slow down the neutrons and ordinary water to ensure proper cooling.
The I-1 reactor operated with a cooling system in which water passed through once. However, the remaining four installations were equipped with closed primary circuits equipped with heat exchangers. This design made it possible to additionally generate steam, which in turn helped in the production of electricity and heating of various living spaces.
Tomsk-7 also had a reactor called EI-2, which, in turn, had a dual purpose: it produced plutonium and, due to the steam generated, generated 100 MW of electricity, as well as 200 MW of thermal energy.
Important information
According to scientists, the half-life of weapons-grade plutonium is about 24,360 years. Huge number! In this regard, the question becomes especially acute: “How to properly deal with the waste from the production of this element?” The best option is considered to be the construction of special enterprises for the subsequent processing of weapons-grade plutonium. This is explained by the fact that in this case the element can no longer be used for military purposes and will be under human control. This is exactly how weapons-grade plutonium is disposed of in Russia, but the United States of America has taken a different route, thereby violating its international obligations.
Thus, the American government proposes to destroy highly enriched material not by industrial means, but by diluting plutonium and storing it in special containers at a depth of 500 meters. It goes without saying that in this case the material can easily be removed from the ground at any time and used again for military purposes. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, initially the countries agreed to destroy plutonium not by this method, but to carry out disposal at industrial facilities.
The cost of weapons-grade plutonium deserves special attention. According to experts, tens of tons of this element may well cost several billion US dollars. And some experts have even estimated 500 tons of weapons-grade plutonium at as much as 8 trillion dollars. The amount is really impressive. To make it clearer how much money this is, let’s say that in the last ten years of the 20th century, Russia’s average annual GDP was $400 billion. That is, in fact, the real price of weapons-grade plutonium was equal to twenty annual GDP of the Russian Federation.
Plutonium was discovered in late 1940 at the University of California. It was synthesized by McMillan, Kennedy and Wahl by bombarding uranium oxide (U 3 O 8) with deuterium nuclei (deuterons) highly accelerated in a cyclotron. It was later found that this nuclear reaction first produces the short-lived isotope neptunium-238, and from it plutonium-238 with a half-life of about 50 years. A year later, Kennedy, Seaborg, Segre and Wahl synthesized a more important isotope, plutonium-239, by irradiating uranium with highly accelerated neutrons in a cyclotron. Plutonium-239 is formed from the decay of neptunium-239; it emits alpha rays and has a half-life of 24,000 years. Pure plutonium compound was first obtained in 1942. Then it became known that there was natural plutonium found in uranium ores, in particular in ores deposited in the Congo.
The name of the element was proposed in 1948: McMillan named the first transuranic element neptunium due to the fact that the planet Neptune is the first beyond Uranus. By analogy, they decided to call element 94 plutonium, since the planet Pluto is second after Uranus. Pluto, discovered in 1930, received its name from the name of the god Pluto, the ruler of the underworld in Greek mythology. At the beginning of the 19th century. Clark proposed calling the element barium plutonium, deriving this name directly from the name of the god Pluto, but his proposal was not accepted.
How much does 1 cube of plutonium weigh, the weight of 1 m3 of plutonium. The number of kilograms in 1 cubic meter, the number of tons in 1 cubic meter, kg in 1 m3. Bulk density of plutonium specific gravity.What do we want to learn today? How much does 1 cube of plutonium weigh, the weight of 1 m3 of plutonium? No problem, you can find out the number of kilograms or the number of tons at once, the mass (weight of one cubic meter, weight of one cube, weight of one cubic meter, weight of 1 m3) is indicated in Table 1. If anyone is interested, you can skim the small text below and read some explanations. How is the amount of substance, material, liquid or gas we need measured? Except for those cases when it is possible to reduce the calculation of the required quantity to the counting of goods, products, elements in pieces (piece counting), it is easiest for us to determine the required quantity based on volume and weight (mass). In everyday life, the most common unit of volume measurement for us is 1 liter. However, the number of liters suitable for household calculations is not always an applicable way to determine the volume for business activities. In addition, liters in our country have not become a generally accepted “production” and trade unit for measuring volume. One cubic meter, or in its abbreviated version - one cube, turned out to be a fairly convenient and popular unit of volume for practical use. We are accustomed to measuring almost all substances, liquids, materials and even gases in cubic meters. It's really convenient. After all, their costs, prices, rates, consumption rates, tariffs, supply contracts are almost always tied to cubic meters (cubes), and much less often to liters. No less important for practical activities is knowledge of not only the volume, but also the weight (mass) of the substance occupying this volume: in this case we are talking about how much 1 cubic meter weighs (1 cubic meter, 1 cubic meter, 1 m3). Knowing mass and volume gives us a fairly complete idea of quantity. Site visitors, when asking how much 1 cube weighs, often indicate specific units of mass in which they would like to know the answer to the question. As we noticed, most often they want to know the weight of 1 cube (1 cubic meter, 1 cubic meter, 1 m3) in kilograms (kg) or tons (t). Essentially, you need kg/m3 or t/m3. These are closely related units that define quantity. In principle, a fairly simple independent conversion of weight (mass) from tons to kilograms and vice versa is possible: from kilograms to tons. However, as practice has shown, for most site visitors a more convenient option would be find out immediately how many kilograms 1 cubic (1 m3) of plutonium weighs or how many tons 1 cubic (1 m3) of plutonium weighs, without converting kilograms into tons or vice versa - the number of tons into kilograms per cubic meter (one cubic meter, one cubic meter, one m3). Therefore, in Table 1 we indicated how much 1 cubic meter (1 cubic meter, 1 cubic meter) weighs in kilograms (kg) and tons (t). Choose the table column that you need yourself. By the way, when we ask how much 1 cubic meter (1 m3) weighs, we mean the number of kilograms or the number of tons. However, from a physical point of view, we are interested in density or specific gravity. The mass of a unit volume or the amount of substance contained in a unit volume is bulk density or specific gravity. In this case bulk density and specific gravity of plutonium. Density and specific gravity in physics are usually measured not in kg/m3 or tons/m3, but in grams per cubic centimeter: g/cm3. Therefore, in Table 1, specific gravity and density (synonyms) are indicated in grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3)
