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

Plutonium stands as one of the most dangerous and toxic elements ever created by humanity. This video explores the science behind plutonium, explaining why it is so hazardous, how it’s produced ...

Reporting from Richland, Wash. — As crews demolished a shuttered nuclear weapons plant during 2017 in central Washington, specks of plutonium were swept up in high gusts and blown miles across a ...

Nuclear weapons are spreading. This plutonium scientist is trying to stop that Siegfried Hecker serves as a scientific shuttle diplomat, building ties with rival nuclear researchers the world over.

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 ...

The government’s plutonium plan would require an extension, and the facility, which is known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, risks running out of space before all the plutonium gets ...

Most plutonium on Earth, made in reactors, is plutonium 239. Its nucleus holds 145 neutrons, and it is the material that is typically used to set off the explosive force of a hydrogen bomb.

A soil sample with an elevated level of plutonium taken along the eastern edge of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is more than five times the cleanup standard established for the radioactive ...

Given plutonium’s long half-life, we humans have permanently altered what once was our natural environment. We no longer live in an environment of purely natural background radiation.

About 6 percent of the fuel in reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan is made of a "mixed-oxide" fuel, which contains plutonium — which stays hazardous for tens of ...

Freshly Made Plutonium From Outer Space Found On Ocean Floor May 13, 20212:00 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered Nell Greenfieldboyce ...