User:Sebastian barnes/sandbox

Occurrence

Appoximately 1800 tonnes of plutonium exists in the world. [1] Most of this is kept in secure and secret locations, partly as a component of weapons and stockpiles awaiting disposal or use, in locations across the world in countries that have developed atomic capability. During the manufacture of nuclear weapons and the functioning of nuclear power stations normal operating losses and waste have distributed plutonium into the local environment; in the USA these losses have been recorded 12.7 tonnes in the waste from weapons manufacture 1944 to 2009.[2] A weapons programme of a comparable scale in Russia based at Mayak is less well documented. Smaller weapons programmes existed in other countries but details of waste and normal operating losses are few; 200 kg of plutonium has been deposited in the marine sediments of the Irish Sea from normal operating losses of the sellafield plant. [3] During the testing of weapons:10 tonnes of plutonium was vapourized into the atmosphere, [4]. This plutonium was distributed around the planet. No data is presently available on the quantity of plutonium residue from underground testing.

An undefined quantity of plutonium has been released into the environment by accident by both the civil and military industries: Rocky Flats, Hanford Nuclear Site, and the Nevada test site are examples in the USA. The meltdowns at Chernobyl and Fukushima, the Windscale fire, and accidents at Mayak in Russia are among the long list of smaller but significant release incidents. As plutonium is heavy these incidents have contaminated areas local to the source. Trace amounts of two plutonium isotopes (plutonium-239 and 244) can be found in nature.Sebastian barnes (talk) 11:14, 19 April 2012 (UTC)