Interesting presentation from the BBC . About Plutonium .

 

LINK. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29274491

 

MIKE

Edited September 20, 201411 yr by Mike Smith Cosmos

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/

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.