One of the primary forms of waste from a typical nuclear light water reactor (LWR) is the spent fuel from the fission reaction ... fissile uranium-238 into plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 ...

When concentrated enough, plutonium-239 undergoes a fission chain reaction. Because of this, it is used in nuclear weapons and some nuclear reactors. In fact, one of the biggest uses for plutonium ...

uranium-235 and plutonium-239. "Nuclear fission and related nuclear chain reactions were only discovered a little more than 80 years ago, and experimenters are still working to provide the full ...

An isotope of plutonium named plutonium-239 is fissile, which means that it can start a nuclear chain reaction ... the energy from nuclear fission can be harnessed for good.

Plutonium-239 is the isotope typically used in nuclear ... Usually, a chemical explosion will compress the pit, triggering a fission reaction within the plutonium. The energy released by this ...

Adding a neutron to uranium-238 in a reactor “breeds” plutonium-239. The process of creating 239 Pu from uranium is called “breeding.” From the look of the reaction above, it seems like a ...

the second stage is more concerned with plutonium fission. When a Pu-239 nucleus captures a neutron, it has a 27-38% chance of becoming Pu-240 instead of undergoing fission. It is thus present in ...

Nuclear fission can help humankind meet its energy needs when chain reactions are controlled in ... of the heavy elements uranium or plutonium. The energy needed to kick start fission is around ...