Foul (nautical) Foul (nautical) Foul is a nautical term meaning to entangle or entwine, and more generally that something is wrong or difficult. The term dates back to usage with wind-driven sailing ships. It is usually applied to the state of an anchor, which has become hooked on some impediment on the seafloor, or has its cable wound round the stock or flukes. The term is generally utilized when speaking of items of historical value such as the US Navy chief petty officer emblem. The foul anchor is also the official seal of the Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom, presently
Plutonium-240 Plutonium-240 Plutonium-240 (/Pu-240) is an isotope of the actinide metal plutonium formed when plutonium-239 captures a neutron. The detection of its spontaneous fission led to its discovery in 1944 at Los Alamos and had important consequences for the Manhattan Project. Pu-240 undergoes spontaneous fission as a secondary decay mode at a small but significant rate. The presence of Pu-240 limits the plutonium's use in a nuclear bomb, because the neutron flux from spontaneous fission initiates the chain reaction prematurely, causing an early release of energy that physically disperses the core before full implosion is reached. It decays by alpha emission