NASA and DOE have an agreement to produce 1.5 Kg of plutonium dioxide per year, just enough to supply one, possibly two, deep space missions per decade.

While plutonium dioxide has two oxygen atoms for each plutonium, crystals of the higher oxides have an oxygen-plutonium ratio of more than two but less than three, they conclude.

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 ...

A team of scientists has discovered a new, stable form of plutonium – and done so by accident. The famously unstable element is tricky to transport, store and dispose of, but the find could lead ...

The plutonium dioxide generates heat as it decays. Another Battelle-managed facility, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, developed the equipment that houses the pellets.

After 50 years of searching, physicists have spotted the fingerprint of radioactive plutonium, revealing the secrets of this complex molecule behind nuclear weapons.

Plutonium dioxide can then be reduced to metallic plutonium, for example by heating it with powdered aluminum.

Nothing like that occurred, and the miniature power plants, fueled by plutonium dioxide, are now generating 750 watts of power to run the spacecraft's 12 scientific instruments and the radio that ...

After 50 years of searching, physicists have spotted the fingerprint of radioactive plutonium, revealing the secrets of this complex molecule behind nuclear weapons.

Mars has long captured humanity’s imagination, especially given the tantalizing evidence of ancient river valleys and ...