weapons-grade plutonium
Nuclear warhead fuel
Weapons-grade plutonium is plutonium refined to a purity level suitable for nuclear weapons, typically containing at least 93% plutonium-239.
The designation distinguishes it from reactor-grade plutonium used in power plants, which contains more of the isotope plutonium-240.
Producing weapons-grade material requires specialized facilities and is heavily restricted by international agreements: The inspectors confirmed no weapons-grade plutonium had been diverted.
- uraniumElement ninety-two
- uranium enrichmentRaising fissile isotope proportion
- fissileAble to split apart
- enrichedMade more valuable
- nuclearOf atomic energy
warhead · atomic bomb · bomb · Fat Man · reactor · centrifuge · spent fuel · Manhattan · isotope · radioactive · Los Alamos · implosion · fallout · Nagasaki · proliferation · arms race · Cold War · yellowcake
- Nuclear Materialsuranium, enriched uranium, uranium-235, U-235, thorium
- radioactive materialsuranium, radium, thorium, radon, polonium
- nuclear weaponsatomic bomb, atom bomb, warheads, hydrogen bomb, a-bomb
weapons-grade plutoniumdepleted uranium
Processed nuclear byproduct, very dense
weapons-grade plutoniumnuclear medicine
Healthcare using radioactive materials
weapon, weapons, weaponry, weaponize, weaponized, weaponizing, grades, graded, grading