Inhaling large concentrations of uranium can cause lung cancer from the exposure to alpha particles. Uranium is also a toxic chemical, meaning that ingestion of uranium can cause kidney damage from its chemical properties much sooner than its radioactive properties would cause cancers of the bone or liver.

Atoms cannot be created or destroyed. Atoms of different elements may combine with each other in a fixed, simple, whole number ratios to form compound atoms. Atoms of same element can combine in more than one ratio to form two or more compounds.

The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years. It decays into radium-226, which in turn decays into radon-222. Radon-222 becomes polonium-210, which finally decays into a stable nuclide, lead.

Yes, you have to be special licensed to possess quantities of Uranium and/or Plutonium of greater than 1 gram. If you are not licensed, then it is illegal to possess either element.

Splitting an atom is called nuclear fission, and the repeated splitting of atoms in fission is called a chain reaction. Scientists split atoms in order to study atoms and the smaller parts they break into. This is not a process that can be carried out at home.

For hundreds of years, glassmakers used small amounts of uranium to create yellow or green glass. The yellow tint of this glass led to the nicknames “Vaseline glass” and “canary glass.” Under an ultraviolet (UV) or “black” light, the uranium causes the glass to glow bright green.

Usually when we talk about uranium ’round these parts, it’s in regards to nuclear power and weapons, as the enriched stuff is at the heart of most reactors. But even if you don’t have much use for uranium, did you know you can just … buy it online, right out there in the open, and it’s perfectly legal? It’s true!

Plutonium-239, the isotope found in the spent MOX fuel, is much more radioactive than the depleted Uranium-238 in the fuel. Plutonium emits alpha radiation, a highly ionizing form of radiation, rather than beta or gamma radiation. When alpha-emitters get inside cells, on the other hand, they are extremely hazardous.

However, since any Plutonium can be used to create a bomb, no matter how unstable, Plutonium is considered the material most used in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Its production as a by product of Uranium reactors means that harvesting it requires much less energy than creating enriched Uranium.

Plutonium is a radioactive metallic element with the atomic number 94. It was discovered in 1940 by scientists studying how to split atoms to make atomic bombs. Plutonium is created in a reactor when uranium atoms absorb neutrons. Nearly all plutonium is man-made.

No, no one is allowed to own plutonium. No, no one is allowed to own plutonium. However due to the recent market in people and collectors liking elements and an effort to collect almost any material in the periodic table the market for depleted uranium is quite active.

Plutonium generally isn’t found in nature. Trace elements of plutonium are found in naturally occurring uranium ores. Here, it is formed in a way similar to neptunium: by irradiation of natural uranium with neutrons followed by beta decay. Primarily, however, plutonium is a byproduct of the nuclear power industry.

Like uranium, plutonium can also be used to fuel nuclear power plants, as is done in a few countries. Currently, the U.S. does not use plutonium fuel in its power reactors. Nuclear reactors that produce commercial power in the United States today create plutonium through the irradiation of uranium fuel.

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Since uranium had been named after the planet Uranus and neptunium after the planet Neptune, element 94 was named after Pluto, which at the time was considered to be a planet as well….