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Plutonium: Legendary Period Table Of Elements

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Plutonium, also known as Pu, is one of the many elements that are included on the legendary Period Table of Elements. It is the chemical element that holds the atomic number 94 and is a very dense, silvery, radioactive metal that can be found in the fuel in nuclear reactors as well as in explosives for nuclear fission weapons. But, recently Gregory R. Choppin Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University, Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt, has unlocked an amazing plutonium discovery providing evidence that plutonium (and other chemical elements) can offer so much more to our world! In fact, Thomas and his team have found that possibly, other than (or instead of) using Pu as a part of the world’s nuclear energy strategies, we can use it to help develop …show more content…

In doing this, they found that a plutonium-organic hybrid compound that Albrecht-Schmitt and his team had created, behaved like other compounds that were made up of lighter elements! Thomas claimed that what made the discovery so surprising to him was that the material that was created was “...really, really simple”. He realized that he can make that same class of compound with other types of heavy elements as …show more content…

The research to develop way to help clean up nuclear waste started just last year when the United States Department of Energy (DOE) gave Thomas $10 million to style a new Energy Frontier Research Center where the focus will be set on further advancing scientific efforts to help clean up nuclear waste (as it is very hard to dispose of. Not to mention DANGEROUS!).Ever since then, Abrecht-Schmitt has used his Plutonium research (as well as research with the elements californium and berkelium) to carry out the DOE’s order. Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt has claimed that in order to create materials that trap plutonium, you first have to understand the electronic properties of plutonium at the most basic level. The way to do this is creating very simple compounds, characterizing them and their every little, exquisite details and understanding all the properties you observe experimentally and theoretically. Hopefully, this new discovery about the element plutonium truly does takes us even closer to the answer of finding a way to clean up nuclear

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