Normally, materials expand when heated. Higher temperatures cause atoms to vibrate, bounce around and take up a larger volume. However, for one specific phase of plutonium—called delta-plutonium—the ...

G. Edward Bixby’s piece offering a “scientific view” of the potential level of harm from a single plutonium atom (Aug. 1) is a fine example of using false logic to “win” an argument.

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 US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has recently confirmed the successful production of the First Production Unit (FPU) of a plutonium pit for the W87-1 ...

Einstein's famous equation explains how atom bombs work The first atomic bomb ever detonated, known as the Trinity test, used about 13 pounds, or 6 kilograms, of plutonium and generated an ...

The “Nagasaki model” atom bomb is a plutonium pile that reacts so quickly that it blows itself (and the neighborhood) to bits in millionths of a second.

An Energy Department report, made public yesterday by a private group, concludes that the cost of disposing of the plutonium will be at least $6.6 billion over 22 years, about 50 percent more than ...

Even though the U.S. has spent $1.4 billion, none of the plutonium has been removed from the weapons stockpile, nor is any expected to be destroyed anytime soon.

Today in jeepers: There's a speck of weapons-grade plutonium missing in Idaho. According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) statement, 1 gram (0.04 ounces) of plutonium-239 — about the ...