Plutonium price
Table of Contents
Plutonium price graph and tabulations
Today we will be taking you through the plutonium price graphs and tabulations. It is a raw material that is not known to everyone. In theory it is only used in nuclear reactors. There are some medical devices that contain it as well, but only in minimal and small numbers.
Not a lot is known, unfortunately, about the price of the raw material. This is, because the demand is very little, but it also does not get produced in large quantities. The production of this raw material only really happens in China, Japan and Russia. However, there are small-scale productions in France and the United Kingdom.
We often see it as a liquid material, but by nature it is actually a metallic solid material. Plutonium is always warmer than its surroundings. If you would put it in water, it would almost immediately start cooking.
There is not a lot of this raw material available, because it only appears at a small scale in uranium quartz. The global production does not go over around 20.000 kilogram per year when you add up all countries.
How is the plutonium price determined?
In principle there is no actual plutonium price known. This raw material is namely not traded a lot in public. This is, because it is only used for nuclear weapons and we do not want to make other countries even more powerful with these kinds of applications. We do however see that countries share plutonium among each other, but what is paid and how this takes place has no real documentation.
Countries producing plutonium
Plutonium can only be found in a few places on earth. It is namely a raw material that is gained from uranium that is also very hard to find.
Globally, it is thought that China and Russia are the largest producers and users of this raw material. However, this is not substantially argued, so it is a guess.
In Japan you see as well that this raw material was found deep under the earth’s crust. This is why they have nuclear power plants that can use this raw material.
In the United Kingdom, this substance can also be found and created, but in very small amounts. The same goes for France.
It is one of the few raw materials that almost never decays. Scientifically they say that it would take 21.125 years before there is nothing left of this raw material. Because we have not been this long on this earth, there is no real scientific proof for this, but we do know that this substance is a health risk.
People that get into contact with plutonium die pretty quickly and that is why a lot of precautions are taken. Do not only think about the safety clothing for employees that handle it, but the storage as well happens very deep in the ground to prevent any consequences.
Facts about the raw material plutonium
1: The plutonium price is unknown, because it is traded in secret. Because nuclear weapons are powerful, we can take a guess that the price for this raw material is very high.
2: Only in 1940 we discovered this material by accident, because there were small quantities in the uranium quartz.
3: 2 years later, in 1942, the registration to the list of elements was made under the number 94.
4: During the second World War, the first two plutonium bombs were used.
5: In 1982 it was decided to destroy leftover material every year, to stimulate the possession of nuclear weapons. They are powerful nuclear weapons with which 1 or multiple countries quickly can attack a country and desotroy it.
6: Plutonium and uranium can be combined to create nuclear energy.
7: In Europe there are about 50 nuclear plants of which 32 are used to create the fuel MOX. They are however being dismantled more and more, of which Germany and Belgium are prime examples.
8: Plutonium also appears in small quantities in RTG, the fuel that astronauts use in their rockets. This makes the fuel a long-lasting one, seeing how plutonium only decays after 24.125 years. This is how astronauts can keep exploring the star systems for longer periods of time.
9: The global production is only 20.000 kilos.
10: Breathing in this raw material, can cause it to get into the lungs and can cause eventual death. One could die within a year from it, others still live another couple of decades. But it is proven to damage your lungs!
History of plutonium
There is only little known about the history of plutonium, the discovery or the price. This is mainly, because the substance is one that can give one or multiple countries a lot of power.
We do know that it was discovered in 1942 by 4 scholars that were researching it at the university of California. This took a long time, because it was only available in small quantities in uranium quartz and because o f the advanced chemical process that precedes the isolation of this raw material.
What exchange trade plutonium?
Plutonium is a raw material that is not traded on the stock exchange. Eventually, all countries are supposed to destroy all of this raw material. But it is not easy to destroy, so a lot of big countries still possess this.
It is mostly traded behind the scenes and will remain this way forever. In the non-proliferation treaty (NPV) of 1981 it has been agreed that countries have to lessen their production, so that it cannot be used for the wrong means. This charity treaty makes it unable for a country to take control. There are countries that still do not want to step away from this.
Plutonium and the future
We are curious to see if we can get more grip on the plutonium price in the future and where it is traded. Safety services have all became a lot smarter throughout the years. This way they know to get a hold on the criminal activities in the underworld as well. In this world, it could easily be that there is a trade in uranium and plutonium to create weapons, or even the weapons themselves. That is all speculation, however, as there is no proof at all of this.
