Some of this natural plutonium is related to uranium. Some has been found in meteorite dust deposited in the seabed. So, plutonium-244 is the heaviest naturally occurring element that we know of.

Natural plutonium. Published 3 September 2008. From Gregg Brunskill . You claimed that plutonium does not occur naturally (12 July, p 36).Small amounts of plutonium-239 are found in uranium ores ...

Instead, the tremendous heat generated by the natural decay of plutonium-238—up to 475º F in the New Horizons probe—is converted to electricity in a radioisotopic thermal generator (RTG).

Given plutonium’s long half-life, we humans have permanently altered what once was our natural environment. We no longer live in an environment of purely natural background radiation.

Plutonium-238 is 280 times more radioactive than Plutonium-239, the plutonium isotope used in atomic bombs and as a “trigger” in hydrogen bombs. There are 10.6 pounds of Plutonium-238 on ...

This plutonium scientist is trying to stop that ... Natural uranium is 99.3% Uranium 238 -- a particular variety of the element with 238 protons and neutrons.

Highly toxic plutonium has seeped into the soil outside the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex in northeastern Japan, officials say. The amounts detected in two different soil ...

Furthermore, between 1953 and 1986, the government pumped an annual average of 360 million gallons of contaminated waste – including plutonium – directly into the groundwater.

Finding plutonium in nature is rare; it exists naturally only in Oklo, a natural nuclear reactor in Gabon. ... When plutonium was enriched as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, ...

SEOUL — The plutonium Japan has stockpiled for decades was supposed to be a smart energy source for the resource-poor nation. But last year's earthquake-triggered nuclear accident, along with ...

The discovery proves that plutonium's magnetism is not necessarily missing, only sporadic; it also explains why the metal is so unstable. "It provides a natural explanation for plutonium's complex ...