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 ...

The two lawmakers questioned the necessity of the nuclear weapons agency's plutonium pit strategy in a letter exclusively ...

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 ...

An undated photo capturing the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, with the Rio Grande valley and the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background. (Photo courtesy of Los Alamos ...

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 ...

Over the course of two weeks, a government pledge, that dozens of nuclear weapon cores known as pits could be made by 2030 at new and improved facilities some 1,600 miles apart, publicly crumbled.

ALBUQUERQUE – The agency that oversees the United States’ nuclear arsenal says it doesn’t need to do any broad environmental reviews of a proposal that calls for ramping up production of plutonium ...

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the organization within the Energy Department that is responsible for producing and maintaining US nuclear warheads, is moving forward with a plan ...

Barbara Scollin, grandniece of Major Gen. Kenneth D. Nichols continues her series on his life. ***Ample reasons, most notably leadership skills, personality traits and qualifications, led to choosing ...

NASA will now foot the entire bill for the United States' production of plutonium-238 spacecraft fuel, which recently started up again for the first time in a quarter-century. The space agency had ...

The Department of Energy is scheduled to decide within days where plutonium parts for the next generation of nuclear weapons are to be made, but recent internal government reports indicate serious and ...

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons ...