(ELI5) I just read that plutonium is very rare. I have little to no knowledge of science etc. where in the natural world does it come from? How do you source it?

Question

(ELI5) I just read that plutonium is very rare. I have little to no knowledge of science etc. where in the natural world does it come from? How do you source it?

In: 3

Answer 1

short answer: almost all the plutonium we have is manufactured in a nuclear reactor.

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longer answer: radioactive elements, basically, are unstable. they want to fall apart into a more stable format. when uranium is used in a reactor, it undergoes fission (splitting), with the atom shedding protons and neutrons in an attempt to reach a more “stable” state.

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One of the decay chains leads to Plutonium, a more unstable and radioactive material than uranium, which makes it possible to make smaller bombs form it as you need less materail to reach critical mass.

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this higher instability is why its extremely rare in nature. it decays into something else.