Plutonium Essay, Research Paper

Plutonium-239 (an isotope of plutonium) is used in making nuclear weapons. Plutonium- 238 is used to power equipment on the moon by means of the heat it emits. Plutonium is also used in radionuclide batteries for pacemakers.

Plutonium is very harmful and deadly for man in more than one way. Plutonium is harmful in the way that man use it against each other in nuclear weapons. This kills many people by the explosion and the radiation left after the blast. In fact, plutonium is so harmful for the body that if you breath in only 1/1,000,000 of a gram it would cause lung cancer. If plutonium stays in your body, your chances of cancer increase.

In 1941, plutonium was discovered at the University of California, Berkeley by Glenn T. Seaborg and his associates. The origin of the name is after the planet Pluto.