What makes an isotope fissionable

Uranium absorbs a neutron and forms plutonium - thus making it fertile. Fossil Fuels. Nuclear Fuels. Acid Rain. Climate Change. Climate Feedback. Ocean Acidification. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research For a safer, healthier environment and the democratization of science. Fissile materials are composed of atoms that can be split by neutrons in a self-sustaining chain-reaction to release enormous amounts of energy.

In nuclear reactors, the fission process is controlled and the energy is harnessed to produce electricity. In nuclear weapons, the fission energy is released all at once to produce a violent explosion. The most important fissile materials for nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are an isotope of plutonium, plutonium, and an isotope of uranium, uranium Uranium occurs in nature. For all practical purposes, plutonium does not. It can have a number of chemical forms.

Nuclear weapons use plutonium metal. Plutonium dioxide is used as a component of some nuclear fuels. Plutonium has a half-life of over 24, years a half-life is the time it takes for half of a given amount of radioactive material to decay into other elements.

Two key facilities are needed to obtain plutonium. First, in a nuclear reactor, uranium absorbs a neutron. This leads to nuclear reactions which convert it to plutonium. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number.

Related Content Related Overviews isotope fission neutron. Show Summary Details Overview fissionable isotope. Reference entries fissionable isotope in A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation Length: 25 words.

View all related items in Oxford Reference » Search for: 'fissionable isotope' in Oxford Reference ». Most of them have very long lifetimes of several thousands or millions of years with a radioactive alpha decay. The size of fissile nuclei approaches the maximum allowed for a nucleus. All are unstable, but most of them have very long lifetimes of several thousands or millions of years with a radioactive alpha decay. More than their instability, the remarkable feature of these nuclei is their fragility when they capture an extra neutron.

They all have odd numbers of neutrons, with the lightest possessing 91 protons and neutrons.