Plutonium

History

Plutonium was discovered in 1941 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, J. W. Kennedy, and A. C. Wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium in the 60-inch cyclotron of the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, but the discovery was kept secret. It was named after the planet Pluto, having been discovered directly after neptunium (which itself was one higher on the periodic table than uranium), by analogy with the ordering of the planets in the solar system. During the Manhattan Project, large reactors were set up in Hanford, Washington for the production of plutonium, which was used in two of the first atomic bombs (the first was tested at Trinity site, the second dropped on Nagasaki, Japan).

Related Topics:
1941 - Glenn T. Seaborg - Edwin M. McMillan - J. W. Kennedy - A. C. Wahl - Deuteron - Berkeley Radiation Laboratory - University of California, Berkeley - Pluto - Neptunium - Uranium - Manhattan Project - Reactors - Hanford, Washington - Trinity site - Nagasaki - Japan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Large stockpiles of plutonium were built up by both the old Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War—it was estimated that 300,000 kg of plutonium had been accumulated by 1982. Since the end of the Cold War, these stockpiles have become a focus of nuclear proliferation concerns. In 2002, the United States Department of Energy took possession of 34 metric tons of excess weapons grade plutonium stockpiles from the United States Department of Defense, and as of early 2003 was considering converting several nuclear power plants in the US from enriched uranium fuel to MOX fuel as a means of disposing of these.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - United States - Cold War - 1982 - Nuclear proliferation - United States Department of Energy - United States Department of Defense - Enriched uranium - MOX fuel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the initial years after the discovery of plutonium, when its biological and physical properties were very poorly understood, a series of human radiation experiments were performed by the U.S. government and by private organizations acting on its behalf. From the time of April 1945 to July 1947, 18 men, women, and children were deliberately injected with solutions containing various concentrations of plutonium by doctors working with the Manhattan Project. Though the injections were only to occur in what were percieved by the doctors as terminally ill patients at the hospital, in at least one instance this was not the case and the injections, in all cases, were conducted without any kind of informed consent from the subjects of the experiment. The episode is considered today, to be a gross violation of human rights and of the Hippocratic Oath, and is widely regarded as one of the darkest chapters in 20th-century American medical history. http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=nd99longworth

Related Topics:
Human radiation experiments - Manhattan Project - Hippocratic Oath - 20th-century - American

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~