Latest Plutonium Stories

By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The United States is poised to produce plutonium-238 for the first time since the end of the Cold War but it will be used for space missions, not weapons, officials said this week. The U.S. Department of Energy will decide this fall whether to move forward with its proposal to produce the radioactive metal at a federal nuclear facility in southeast Idaho, a department spokesman said. Under the $300 million plan, the Idaho National Laboratory...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States plans to producehighly radioactive plutonium 238 for the first time since theCold War, The New York Times reported on Monday. The newspaper quoted project managers as saying most, ifnot all, of the new plutonium was intended for secret missions.The officials would not disclose details, but the newspapersaid the plutonium in the past powered espionage devices. The Times said Timothy Frazier, head of radioisotope powersystems at the U.S. Energy...

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- The Idaho National Laboratory is waiting for a green light to begin producing plutonium that would supply battery power for NASA spacecraft. Later this month the Department of Energy is expected to release an environmental study on a plan to consolidate plutonium-238 production across the nation at the Idaho site. The project has other applications besides providing voltage on the far side of Mercury. The batteries could run surveillance equipment in more remote -...

LONDON (AFP) -- A civilian nuclear fuels reprocessing plant in northwest England cannot account for some 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of plutonium, enough for seven or eight nuclear bombs. The annual audit of nuclear material at all of Britain's civil nuclear plants is expected to reveal that the quantity of plutonium at Sellafield was classified as "material unaccounted for" last year, The Times newspaper said Thursday. Figures published by the British Nuclear Group (BNG) each year...