First of all, I don’t usually read nonfiction. Secondly, titles with colons intimidate me. I like a story. A pretend story. With action, or suspense, or reflection. I like the movie in my head.

North Korea appears to be making new nuclear bomb fuel, satellite imagery shows, even as its leader, Kim Jong Un, has expressed willingness to negotiate atomic disarmament with President Donald Trump.

Fifteen years ago, the United States stopped making plutonium-238, one of the most toxic substances known to man. It can be fatal to inhale so much as a speck of the radioactive isotope. But now, ...