Hist Sci Quiz: Plutonium

Discuss the importance of one of the following:
1. The German Bomb Project 2. Otto Hahn 3. Plutonium

Plutonium:

• Radioactive transuranium element #94.
• Found to be fissionable.
• Produced in atomic piles in small quantities asd a byproduct of uranium fission, but more easily separated from uranium than uranium 235 (Plutonium can be chemically separated).
• Used in nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
• Plutonium bomb had an implosive-type detonator, 20 pound mass of plutonium compressed to critical.
• Los Alamos scientists were able to test detonate a plutonium bomb since they could make more plutonium, however, they were unsure if the bomb would trigger correctly outside laboratory conditions.