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For plutonium (or any other radionuclide) to decay to one eighth of its original activity, it will take 3 half-lives of the material. In one half-life, half is gone. Half will be left. In another half-life, half of the half that was left is gone, and one quarter will be left. In a third half-life, half the one quarter will be left, and that's one eighth of the original. In the case of plutonium, there are a number of isotopes of this highly radioactive stuff. The isotope 239Pu, which is commonly used in nuclear weapons, has a half-life of 2.41 x 104 years. That's 24,100 years. For 239Pu to decay to 1/8 th of its original amount, it will take 3 time the half-life, which is 7.23 x 104 years, or 72,300 years. And yes, that is a long time. A very long time....

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