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.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The vast majority of the radioactive plutonium on the planet is man-made—roughly 500 metric tons, or enough to make 100,000 nuclear weapons. Much of it is the legacy of the nuclear arms race between ...

Elements that do not exist in nature—that have been created in a laboratory—are unstable. After hours or days of one element bombarding another with enough energy for both to fuse, the resulting new ...

A fragment of plutonium sits in the University of California-Berkeley Hazardous Material Facility, locked in 6-foot-by-6-foot windowless room. It's been hanging around Berkeley for decades, like some ...

In the early decades of the atomic age, using the enormous energy in plutonium atoms for the peaceful generation of electricity became a multibillion-dollar quest that shaped US energy research and ...

The American Century was built on a toxic metal, one we still know very little about at the Nevada Test Site, an empty and awesome stretch of desert whose cratered surface resembles the face of the ...

Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London.View full profile Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum ...