Chemistry and The Scourge of Plutonium Pollution

Productive, peacetime uses for Plutonium are presently rare, but it has found use as a power source for space-faring probes (e.g. Voyager spacecraft and for the New Horizon’s mission).

 Scientists Are Automating Plutonium Production So NASA Can Explore Deep Space

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have eliminated a major bottleneck in the production of plutonium-238 for deep space exploration through automation.

Armed ships embark on secretive plutonium mission

The cargo of plutonium, once the most sought-after and valuable substance in the world, is one of a number of ever-growing stockpiles that are becoming an increasing financial and security embarrassment to the countries that own them.

Bury Plutonium? Scientists Recommend Radioactive Element’s Disposal—But Where?

The vast majority of the radioactive plutonium on the planet is man-made—roughly 500 metric tons, or enough to make 100,000 nuclear weapons by the calculations of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. Much of it is the legacy of the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia in the latter decades of the 20th century but, more and more, it is also the legacy of nuclear power.

Cassini Controversy

It sounds a lot like the plot of a sci-fi blockbuster: A deep-space probe powered by a highly radioactive substance could wipe out humankind.

Everything you need to know about uranium

An enriching guide to all things atomic number 92.

Facts about Plutonium

Because of its high-heat production rate and long half-life of 88 years, 238Pu can be used as a heat source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power spacecraft and extraterrestrial rovers.

How Can a New Form of Plutonium Affect Nuclear Science?

Scientists discovered the compound by accident. They're happy they did.

How Do You Find Plutonium? Go To Nuclear Inspector School

No names. No pictures. No direct conversation. And don't touch the plutonium. Those were the ground rules before NPR was allowed a rare opportunity to see nuclear inspectors learning their craft. The inspectors came from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's nuclear watchdog.

How to Make Plutonium

The inside of the wet hot cell at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where scientists use nitric acid and columns of silica glass to remove dangerously radioactive material that accrues in neptunium—plutonium's precursor—during shipping from Idaho National Laboratory.

Japan's Plutonium Problem

While Japan’s record with nuclear waste is abysmal, no other state has found a safe or economically sustainable way to reuse such substances, especially not plutonium.

Making Matters Worse

The stark fact that the economics of reprocessing and mixed oxide fuel fabrication are horrendous should be a persuasive argument against them, independent of international security implications.

NASA's Plutonium Problem Could End Deep-Space Exploration

Solar power is too weak, chemical batteries don’t last, nuclear fission systems are too heavy. So, we depend on plutonium-238, a fuel largely acquired as by-product of making nuclear weapons. But there’s a problem: We’ve almost run out.

Plutonium in the Hills: How Do You Keep Nuclear Secrets Buried Forever?

Decades after the fall of Soviet Union, scientists are working to determine the lasting environmental effects of Soviet nuclear testing in Kazakhstan.

Plutonium Is Unsung Concession in Iran Nuclear Deal

As a fuel for weapons, plutonium packs a far greater punch than uranium, and in bulk can be easier and cheaper to produce. Which is why some nuclear experts voice incomprehension at what they see as a lopsided focus on uranium in evaluations of the deal reached with Iran — under which Tehran would forsake the production of plutonium.