OOTS #1186 - The Discussion Thread

[Jasdoif]

Plutonium 239, however, which can be relatively easily made from Uranium 238, has a critical mass of 10 kilograms, which is a sphere almost ten centimeters in diameter. A Plutonium elemental, once killed, would almost immediately turn into a nuclear fireball that turns everything in a hundred mile radius into glass and ashes.

If it's a particularly pure plutonium-239 elemental, maybe. There are multiple isotypes of plutonium, though; and a small percentage of plutonium-240 is enough to prevent the rapid consumption needed for nuclear explosions (that's the difference between weapons-grade plutonium and reactor-grade plutonium).