Mike Smith Cosmos Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 (edited) Interesting presentation from the BBC . About Plutonium . LINK. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29274491 MIKE Edited September 20, 2014 by Mike Smith Cosmos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 There are a couple of technical details that are misleading, though. The battery works because plutonium's nucleus is far bigger than any naturally-occurring element, and that makes it unstable. It cracks open producing radiation, and also heat, which can be converted into electricity. The radiation and heat are coupled, not separate things. The energy of the radiation (alpha particles) is deposited in the material, heating it up. Plutonium-239 atoms fire out neutrons as they decay. Put enough close enough together and you get an explosive chain reaction. Typically they fire out alphas. Spontaneous fission branching ratio is ~3 x 10-10 %. http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrock Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Plutonium: The scary element that saved the crew of Apollo 13 First claim I've ever seen that a "a suite of scientific instruments powered by a warm battery containing 8.5lb of pure plutonium" in the LM descent stage helped the astronauts. Not up to the BBC's usual standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now