Are there different degrees of stability in nuclear material?

in the process of making plutonium,are there certain steps one must take to regulate the degree of stability without making it so unstable that it will explode.I believe that you would want it to be as unstable as possible,so that it would require the least amount of energy to cause a reaction,but stable enough to handle.

Answer:
I don't know anything about plutonium, and very little about nuclear technology. But there are, I believe, varying degrees of nuclear stability, and I think the way this is ordinarily handled is by controlling the amount of substance present in a sample (below critical masses) and by blending the substance with something else that absorbs the cascade particles (such as neutrons).

Exploding plutonium.From your question it is not clear that you understand that the stability required is nuclear not chemical? The oxidation state and chemical bonding do indeed change half-life, slightly. Fly is right that it is basically concentration that has to be controlled to reduce neutron density to avoid a run-away rxn. Stable enough to handle? Hello? Handle? the stuff is EXTREMELY radioactive! Do you think dropping it is dangerous? Somebody seems confused. Least amount of energy? like what, a blasting cap? whee-yooo! We got us a hot dog here yes siree bob.

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Are there different degrees of stability in nuclear material?

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