English

Seaborg's Plutonium?

Nuclear Experiment 2015-02-18 v2 Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

Passive x-ray and gamma-ray analysis was performed on UC Berkeley's EH&S Sample S338. The object was found to contain Pu-239 and no other radioactive isotopes. The mass of Pu-239 contained in this object was determined to be 2.0 +- 0.3 micrograms. These observations are consistent with the identification of this object being the 2.77-microgram plutonium oxide sample described by Glenn Seaborg and his collaborators as the first sample of Pu-239 that was large enough to be weighed.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1412.7590,
  title  = {Seaborg's Plutonium?},
  author = {Eric B. Norman and Keenan J. Thomas and Kristina E. Telhami},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.7590},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T07:43:08.869Z