plutonium trigger


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Noun1.plutonium trigger - a steel or beryllium sphere containing plutonium 239 that triggers nuclear fission when compressed by explosives
plutonium pit
A-bomb, atom bomb, atomic bomb, fission bomb, plutonium bomb - a nuclear weapon in which enormous energy is released by nuclear fission (splitting the nuclei of a heavy element like uranium 235 or plutonium 239)
trigger - a device that activates or releases or causes something to happen
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References in periodicals archive ?
Kristen Iversen was raised near the Rocky Flats facility in Colorado, at a time when few workers at the plutonium trigger plant knew exactly what it produced.
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
The Department of Energy (DOE) still controls the 1,308-acre fenced-off middle--technically the "central operable unit"--encompassing the former site of the country's only manufacturing facility for plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons.
Repurposing rocky flats: the transition of a heavily polluted nuclear site into a wilderness refuge raises questions about the implications of hiding our tainted environmental past
For about 40 years, the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats site, near Denver, served as a production facility that made plutonium triggers, or "pits," for nuclear weapons.
Nuclear Cleanup: Preliminary Results of the Review of the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats Closure Projects

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