• Question: How does plutonium react when set off in the form of a bomb?

    Asked by jamesat79 to Christina, Jess on 28 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Jess Bean

      Jess Bean answered on 28 Jun 2013:


      Plutonium and uranium atoms are really reactive because they are really unstable (they are big atoms that are quite floppy). In a nuclear bomb the explosion occurs because the unstable nuclear atoms split into two smaller atoms. These smaller atoms are really radioactive and dangerous. The split is done by pushing the atoms so close together that this triggers a chain reaction that releases massive amounts of energy!

    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 28 Jun 2013:


      @jess – i love the description of floppy atoms!

      to add to Jess’ answer, the key thing is that maintaining an unstable state (like a plutonium atom) takes a lot of energy and things naturally try to be in as low an energy state as possible… So when the atoms split into smaller atoms, the smaller atoms take (much) less energy to maintain and the left over energy is released all at once – this is what causes the big explosion…

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