plüˈtōnēəm noun
( -s )
Etymology: New Latin, from Pluton-, Pluto Pluto, most remote known planet in our solar system (from Latin Pluton-, Pluto Pluto, Greek god of the subterranean world of the dead) + -ium
: a radioactive metallic element of the actinide series that is similar chemically to uranium, that is usually produced in nuclear reactors as the long-lived isotope of mass number 239 by spontaneous emission of an electron from neptunium obtained in turn from uranium 238, that is also found in minute quantities in pitchblende and other uranium-containing ores, that undergoes very slow disintegration with the emission of a helium nucleus to form uranium 235, and that is fissionable with slow neutrons to yield atomic energy for use in power plants or atom bombs — symbol Pu ; see element table, neptunium series