Production of plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site and Los Alamos National Laboratory remains a top priority of the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

SEATTLE — New batches of plutonium-238 may become available to NASA starting in 2017, perhaps preventing feared shortages of this vital spacecraft power source. The United States has not produced ...

Voyages into space are among the most iconic endeavors of the 20th and 21st centuries. Spacecraft that have ventured out to this “final frontier” have relayed stunning images and enlightening ...

Initial construction work on the Savannah River Site plutonium pit production facility could begin by the end of the year. James Toler, executive vice president of the National Nuclear Security ...

Deep space exploration, in which spacecraft travel to the outer reaches of our solar system or beyond, requires a whole lot of power. For NASA, a valuable source of this power is a radioactive ...

Behind closed doors, Congress is in the process of making a decision that will have a profound impact on nuclear risk levels and global security. Hanging in the balance is a decision to recklessly ...

WASHINGTON — For planetary scientists and astrophysicists hoping to re-establish domestic production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in an effort to power future U.S. deep space missions, 2011 could be ...

Radioactive materials have enormous potential as a source of energy, but some isotopes are available in such small quantities that their use as an energy source is limited. In the 1950s, scientists at ...