US Plutonium production resumes for NASA missions

Sign up for a free trial of News Direct s animated news graphics at For story suggestions please contact The United States has resumed production of Plutonium 238 for the purpose of powering NASA s future deep space missions. The country stopped production of Plutonium 238 in 1988, and had been buying it from Russia, but the Russian supply dried up. Neptunium 237 can be placed into a fast reactor, and bombarded with neutrons. The product is Pluto