It has been confirmed by two national laboratories of the US Department of Energy (DOE) that plutonium has magnetic characteristics. Researchers from the Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories of DOE used neutron scattering to come up with the first direct measurement of the distinct quality of plutonium's fluctuating magnetism.

Researchers have now given details about the 'missing' magnetism of plutonium. Their work has been published in Science Advances. According to Marc Janoschek of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and his colleagues, plutonium was synthesized in 1940 for the first time. It has an unstable nucleus as a result of which it undergoes fission. Their study ultimately shows magnetic properties of plutonium.

It is not devoid of magnetism, in fact it has magnetism, which is in a constant state of flux, making it very difficult to detect. The chemical element is used in nuclear fuels and nuclear weapons.

The researchers found on the basis of neutron measurements that the fluctuations consist of different number of electrons that are in the outer valence shell of plutonium. Unpaired electrons lead to the sticking power of magnets, however the number of electrons in plutonium's outer shell keeps changing, and therefore unpaired electrons do not arrange in a magnetic field.

Janoschek said, "Think of the one extreme where the electrons are completely localized around the plutonium ion, which leads to a magnetic moment. But then the electrons go to the other extreme where they become delocalized and are no longer associated with the same ion anymore".