The Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb wasn't without its own dangers. Experiments on a so-called "demon core" of plutonium caused the deaths of two Manhattan Project physicists. Both ...

In 1946, a P-239 plutonium core scheduled for detonation-by-nuclear-bomb was harmlessly melted down and reintegrated into the United States’ nuclear stockpile. That was the end of a 14-pound metallic ...

I think we can all agree that the physicists, engineers, and chemists who worked on the Manhattan Project -- which ultimately ended World War II -- were consummate geniuses and paragons of ...

Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin were two of many people who worked on the Manhattan Project. They might not be household names, but we believe they are the poster children for safety procedures. And ...

The plutonium core for the first atomic weapon detonated in 1945 was taken from Los Alamos National Laboratory to a test site in the New Mexico desert in the backseat of a U.S. Army sedan. Officials ...

The U.S. has nearly 4,000 stockpiled nuclear weapons, and Scientific American wonders what will happen to all of their aging plutonium cores. Experts have said the plutonium will last at least 100 ...

At first glance, the metals that give atom bombs their destructive fury might seem interchangeable: Uranium and plutonium are both more valuable than gold. Both captivate would-be atomic powers. And ...