Plutonium-241

Plutonium-241 (Pu-241) is an isotope of plutonium formed when plutonium-240 captures a neutron. Like Pu-239 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 fission on neutron absorption, than isotopes with an even number of neutrons.

Decay to americium

²⁴¹Pu has a half-life of 14 years, corresponding to a decay of about 5% of Pu-241 nuclei over a one-year period. The longer spent nuclear fuel waits before reprocessing, the more ²⁴¹Pu decays to americium-241, which is nonfissile (although fissionable by fast neutrons) and an alpha emitter with a halflife of 432 years which 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, 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 (or, 17.3% of the time, ²⁴²Pu) via beta decay. Both Cm-242 and Pu-242 are much less likely to absorb a neutron, and even less likely to fission; however, ²⁴²Cm is short-lived (halflife 160 days) and almost always undergoes alpha decay to Pu-238 rather than capturing another neutron. In short, Am-241 needs to absorb two neutrons before again becoming a fissile isotope.