But now, researchers are turning their attention to americium-241, a fuel under active development in Europe and ...

After China's first atomic test, the US and India, as part of a covert operation, tried to place a nuclear-powered listening ...

For historical reasons, plutonium brings to mind nuclear weapons. Jan Hartmann brings another side of element 94 to attention, which features an upcoming trip to its eponymous celestial body.

Plutonium-238 is 280 times more radioactive than Plutonium-239, the plutonium isotope used in atomic bombs and as a “trigger” in hydrogen bombs. There are 10.6 pounds of Plutonium-238 on ...

Plutonium is rare and radioactive, so the researchers had to make the molecules in a special facility at Los Alamos and carefully plan their experiments to get the most possible information out ...

Plutonium's real attraction to specialists is the fact that it can be readily produced from U-238, which is a mostly useless isotope that represents 99.3% of naturally occurring uranium.

The plutonium is currently kept at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s fast critical assembly. Japan’s government initially was reluctant to return the plutonium, saying it was needed for ...

Japan has more plutonium on its hands than any other non-weapons state, according to a 2011 report from the panel. Three-quarters of Japan’s plutonium is stored in other countries, ...

Lightbridge plutonium disposition fuel variant consumes 5.5 times more plutonium per fuel rod than mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. Lightbridge’s proprietary next-generation nuclear fuel technology features ...

In the 1950s, scientists at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, developed a method of producing plutonium-238, a manufactured radioactive isotope, in large enough quantities that its ...