How do they create plutonium?

Plutonium is a man made element and the creation of new atoms is always a very dynamic event. The creation of plutonium occurs as part of a radioactive process called nuclear fission. It involves atomic chain reactions and the release of atomic energy. The recipe for creating plutonium is not to be triedin a kitchen or even in an ordinary lab. In the 1940s, scientists began to realize the useful possibilities of the immense energy in radioactive materials. Almost at once they realized that the earth's stores of uranium and other natural radioactive substances was limited, and they set about finding recipes to create man made supplies. The basic ingredient for the job was natural uranium ore. Every element, of course, has several isotopes or forms with different numbers of neutrons in their atomic nuclei. The isotope uranium 238 is the one used to create the atomic element named plutonium. This man made element is created in a nuclear reactor. The uranium 235 isotope must be present ...  more