INDUSTRY - Production

Production:
An outline of how Americium-241 is created. 

The element Americium, atomic number 95 (Am), a transuranic element, was discovered in 1945 during the Manhattan Project in USA. Americium’s first sample was first produced by the bombardment of neutrons into plutonium by the process using a nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago. Americium-241 was the first isotope to be produced with a half-life of 432 years. A fuel from a power reactor contains 1% plutonium (Pu), formed in a nuclear reactor by neutron capture form Uranium-238. Of this 1%, 10%-15% is the radioisotope Pu-241, with a half-life of 14yrs.Pu-241 then decays to form Am-241 through emission of beta particles. Shown in the equation below:

²⁴¹₉₄Pu --> ⁰_-1e^- + ²⁴¹₉₅Am