Plutonium By: James Seward and Conor O’Rourke

P.6

Characteristics • Chemical Symbol is Pu

• Plutonium is a silvery radioactive metal that tarnishes in air to give a yellow oxide coating. It has six allotropic forms, which vary widely in crystal structure and density. The metal is chemically reactive, forming compounds with the halogens, carbon, nitrogen, and silicon. If held, plutonium would be warm to the touch because of the energy given off in alpha decay, and a large piece of the metal could boil water.

Effect of Plutonium Poisoning

• Once in the body, Plutonium-239 is deposited into the liver and other soft tissues, on bone surfaces, in bone marrow, and other non calcified areas.

• Death will eventually occur due to radiation poisoning.

Nagasaki• In the final stage son World War II, the US

dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb used on Nagasaki was composed of Plutonium. (The Hiroshima bomb used Uranium) The death toll amounting to the use of the Plutonium bomb was 75,000 Japanese citizens.

Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.

• Dr. Harry Daghlian died after an acciedent occurred in his lab when he dropped a tungsten brick onto the core of a plutonium bomb, causing a chemical reaction to occur, and eventually radiating himself. He died 25 days later. Below is a picture of Daghlian’s hand after the radiation occurred.

Sources• http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://

schools-wikipedia.org/images/245/24549.jpg&imgrefurl

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_K._Daghlian,_Jr.• http://

www.chemicool.com/elements/plutonium.html• http://

chinese-school.netfirms.com/forums/radioactive-poisoning-treatments-vt402.html

• http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/200708230009.html