A rare radioactive isotope stands between NASA and its next generation of deep-space exploration. Plutonium-238, the fuel ...

The moment nuclear material is produced, processed or purified, it sets off a hidden countdown, marked by the half-life of ...

NASA’s most ambitious deep-space missions rely on plutonium to generate power where solar energy stops being practical. But ...

Spacecraft have used a plutonium isotope to stay afloat for decades, but another isotope could last even longer.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A person reflects in the window of the U.S. Department of Energy, with the official portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump on the ...

China's military mouthpiece claims Tokyo has 'astonishing' stockpile of nuclear materials and the tech to produce weapons ...

Completing the construction and outfitting of a facility for training the operators who will produce plutonium pits at the ...

A chemistry professor created a plutonium compound that behaves much more like lighter elements, giving scientists new information about how this element works. Plutonium has long been part of many ...

Newly released memo urges Los Alamos to accelerate plutonium pit production as critics raise safety and environmental ...

It appears that the U.S.'s plutonium-238 shortage is coming an end. The radioisotope is crucial for fueling long-term deep space missions, but as of 2017, a shortage was on the horizon. But ...

In 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft left Earth on a five-year mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Thirty-six years later, the car-size probe is still exploring, still sending its findings home. It ...