Plutonium-241
Plutonium-241 is an isotope of plutonium formed when plutonium-240 captures a neutron. Like 239Pu but unlike 240Pu, 241Pu is fissile, with a neutron absorption cross section about 1/3 greater than 239Pu, and a similar probability of fissioning on neutron absorption, around 73%. In the non-fission case, neutron capture produces plutonium-242. In general, isotopes with an odd number of neutrons are both more likely to absorb a neutron, and more likely to undergo fission on neutron absorption, than isotopes with an even number of neutrons.241Pu has a half-life of 14 years, corresponding to a decay of about 5% of 241Pu nuclei over a one-year period. The longer spent nuclear fuel waits before reprocessing, the more 241Pu decays to americium-241, which is nonfissile and an alpha emitter with a halflife of 432 years; 241Am is a major contributor to the radioactivity of nuclear waste on a scale of hundreds or thousands of years.
Americium has lower valence and lower electronegativity than plutonium, neptunium or uranium, so in most nuclear reprocessing, Am tends to fractionate not with U, Np, or Pu, but with the alkaline fission products: lanthanides, strontium, caesium, barium, yttrium, and is therefore not recycled into nuclear fuel unless special efforts are made.
In a thermal reactor, 241Am captures a neutron to become americium-242, which quickly becomes curium-242 via beta decay. Both 242Cm and 242Pu are much less likely to absorb a neutron, and even less likely to fission; however, 242Cm is short-lived and almost always undergoes alpha decay to 238Pu rather than capturing another neutron. In short, 241Am needs to absorb two neutrons before again becoming a fissile isotope.
