The half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,000 years, so if it escaped in smoke from a burning reactor and contaminated soil downwind, it would remain hazardous for tens of thousands of years.

From the nine observed decay chains, the researchers then measured the 𝛼-particle energy and half-life of plutonium-227 to be about 8191 keV and 0.78 s, respectively.

In particular, the researchers were on the hunt for plutonium-244, a variation of plutonium with a half-life of 80.6 million years.

But experts say that plutonium isn’t the most dangerous of the isotopes seeping out of the reactor. Over the short term, radioactive iodine may be the most worrisome, they say.

We are already exposed to plutonium present in the environment, which came from nuclear testing that took place 80 years ago. This is due to the 24,110-year-long half-life of plutonium-239.

But now, researchers are turning their attention to americium-241, a fuel under active development in Europe and ...

The Plutonium Pathway followed by Pu-238 used in the nuclear batteries that fuel NASA rovers. The plutonium-238 that powers NASA’s rovers on Mars crisscrosses the United States first on a tour ...

The 310-square-mile complex, known to locals as the “bomb plant,” produced weapons-grade plutonium and tritium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal from the 1950s through the end of the Cold War and ...

At the Fujisaki department store downtown, chocolate gifts made with locally produced sake or honey and carrying messages of gratitude are gaining in popularity. "It is probably because consumers ...

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., first announced the removal of the plutonium, stored at the Nevada National Security Site north of Las Vegas, on Friday.

Most plutonium on Earth, made in reactors, is plutonium 239. Its nucleus holds 145 neutrons, and it is the material that is typically used to set off the explosive force of a hydrogen bomb.

Ed Miliband has been urged to preserve a 140-tonne stockpile of radioactive plutonium instead of burying it as dangerous waste. The material, which is made up of spent fuel from power plants ...