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by Ciro Santilli (@cirosantilli, 37)

Plutonium-240

 ... Natural science Chemistry Chemical element List of chemical elements Plutonium Plutonium isotope
 1 By others on same topic  0 Discussions  Updated 2025-05-26  +Created 2024-08-14  See my version
This isotope shows up as an inevitable contaminant in Plutonium-239 for nuclear weapons, because it emits neutrons too fast and makes it harder to assemble the critical mass without fizzle.
It is the presence of this contaminant that made implosion-type fission weapon a necessity: Section "Gun-type fission weapons don't work with plutonium".
Wikipedia explains that Pu-240 is formed by Pu-239 Neutron capture:
About 62% to 73% of the time when 239Pu captures a neutron, it undergoes fission; the remainder of the time, it forms 240Pu.
so its presence is inevitable.

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 Articles by others on the same topic (1)

Plutonium-240 by Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01
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