Plutonium, a radioactive element, is produced when uranium, another radioactive element, absorbs neutrons, and most of it is artificially produced, except for a small amount found in uranium ore.

Plutonium has since been key to a number of more successful missions. The Voyager space probes contain batteries that still provide an estimated 300 watts of power today, down from 500 watts when they ...

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.

The plutonium-244 hints at how heavy metals form in stars. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A rare version of 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 to ...

Scientists have reported a major advance in understanding the biological chemistry of radioactive metals, opening up new avenues of research into strategies for remedial action in the event of ...

JAPANESE scientists have been acknowledged as creating a highly toxic substance potentially more radioactive than plutonium, despite the country' horrific nuclear past and the synthetic element having ...

On November 6, 1944, researchers at the Hanford Site in Washington first created weapons-grade plutonium, the radioactive element used less than a year later in the Fat Man, the atomic plutonium ...

The rare form of the element found on the Pacific seabed points to its violent birth in colliding stars. By William J. Broad Scientists studying a sample of oceanic crust retrieved from the Pacific ...

Plutonium may be the most feared and fearsome substance in the entire periodic table. It's best known as the main ingredient of atomic bombs like the infamous Fat Man, dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August ...