Why do we use Uranium and Plutonium for nukes? Is it possible to use other elements?
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Adding to other answers here, some other nuclides could conceivably be used in a bomb (e.g. Uranium-233, Neptunium-237), but producing them in a concentration that can be made into a critical mass would not be cost-effective.
Some other fissile nuclides (capable of sustaining a chain reaction) would be unsuitable because their half lives are too short. Heat generated by radioactive decay could be problematic, and helium from alpha decay could build up within the material.
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