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Plutonium is a heavy, radioactive, man-made, metallic element used in the production of nuclear energy.

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Energy Secretary Steven Chu sought Wednesday to assure skeptical senators that the Obama administration supports continued development of nuclear energy, even. … But Chu said more research is needed because current methods of reprocessing used in Japan and Europe raise concerns about nuclear proliferation because they produce pure plutonium. Chu dismissed suggestions that the license application be withdrawn. He said the application process could provide an insight as …

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Another one-fifth is plutonium, also recyclable as fuel. Much of the remaining three-fifths has important uses as medical and industrial isotopes. Forty percent of all medical procedures in this country now involve some form of radioactive isotope, … France, which completely reprocesses its recyclable material, stores all the unused remains — from 30 years of generating 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy — beneath the floor of a single room at La Hague. …

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A bottle discarded at a waste site in the US contains the oldest sample of bomb-grade plutonium made in a nuclear reactor, scientists say. The sample dates to 1944 and is a relic from the infancy of the US nuclear weapons programme. …

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In the 1970s and 1980s, three major American companies — General Electric, Westinghouse and Babcock & Wilcox — were the technological leaders of the world in the nuclear reactor field. Today B&W is servicing its ….. The reason it makes some people nervous is that I believe in the process, plutonium is produced, although this is used as fuel and gets thoroughly consumed. I am afraid that it will be left up to other countries, like India, to develop this technology. …

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In April 1998, Pakistan announced that the nuclear reactor was operational. The two new plutonium production reactors are under construction at the Khushab complex. Nuclear armed states tend to have both uranium enrichment and plutonium…

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Later, when we learned how to mutate the U235 natural element - as opposed to the bomb making radioactive U238 - into plutonium, we were able to make a total of 75000 atom bombs and hydrogen bombs over the years. … Both the USA and Germans had figured out that the way to create a nuclear reactor from natural uranium required either heavy water or, better, graphite. This was from theoretical computations. But when they tested it, both sides found problems with graphite …

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HOWEVER, if you put reactor fuel through a nuclear reactor, one of the waste byproducts is Plutonium. Plutonium is relatively easy to extract, much cheaper than U-235 and, most dangerously, fissions very well for nuclear bomb purposes. …

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After being loaded in a nuclear reactor, the fuel rods sit for five years before being removed. At this point, about 12 ounces of U-235 will have been completely transformed into energy. But that’s enough to power San Francisco for five years. … Another one-fifth is plutonium, also recyclable as fuel. Much of the remaining three-fifths has important uses as medical and industrial isotopes. Forty percent of all medical procedures in this country now involve some form of …

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