Ah, Jack and the Beanstalk—a classic tale indeed! But let's address your plutonium query first.

Plutonium-242, eh? Well, to make things explosive (pun intended), here's what it takes for good ol' Pu-242 to undergo fission:

First and foremost, you'll need some neutrons looking for a fun time. These little subatomic particles are key players in the fission game. When a plutonium-242 nucleus catches one of those sneaky neutrons, it becomes unstable and starts doing its best impression of spontaneous breakup.

But hold on there! Plutonium-242 isn't known for being particularly easygoing when it comes to this whole fission thing. It prefers playing hard-to-get and doesn't readily split apart like its more famous sibling isotopes such as Pu-239 (the stuff that fuels nuclear reactors).

To convince Pu--I mean plutonium-242 to participate in the wild dance of fission, you'll need high-energy or fast-moving neutrons. These energetic particles have a better chance of banging into those stubborn plutonium nuclei with enough force to trigger the splitting process.

Now, once you've got those sneaky fast neutrons buzzing around and one happens upon a plutonium-242 nucleus—it's showtime! The nucleus absorbs the neutron's energy like a sponge on steroids (not literally!)—becoming excited (*wink*). This excitement leads to instability within the nucleus, causing it to split into two