Talk:Plutonium-238

Space missions that used Plutonium-238
List is incomplete, please add to it

Additional sources

 * Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator Development
 * Using Nuclear Fuel for Future NASA Missions Gets Boost
 * Planetary exploration’s radioactive decay
 * NASA Science Officials: News Not Entirely Bleak for Mars, PU-238 Restart Still Needed
 * US Pu-238 Production Remains Unfunded
 * Assessment of Plutonium-238 Production Alternatives
 * Role and prospects
 * Role and prospects

Is Pu-238 fissile
I don't think so.

But https://www.tech-faq.com/types-of-nuclear-fuel.html reads in part

''The known fissile materials are: Uranium-233 Uranium-235 Plutonium-238 Plutonium-239 Plutonium-241 Neptunium-237 Curium-244...''

which is a bit of a worry. See fissile. It's no wonder people get confused.

That page was most recently archived at

https://web.archive.org/web/20200915000000*/https://www.tech-faq.com/types-of-nuclear-fuel.html

just in case it has now been corrected. Andrewa (talk) 15:31, 20 February 2021 (UTC)


 * The Neptunium article indicates that Np237 will fission with fast neutrons, suggesting that a bomb is possible. It doesn't fission with slow neutrons, as in a reactor. Note that U238 fissions with fast (enough) neutrons, but not enough to make a bomb. Fissile (fissionable with slow neutrons) usually means an odd number of neutrons. Gah4 (talk) 11:30, 19 October 2021 (UTC)
 * A recent edit says that it is fissile. Usually it is odd N that are fissile, and Pu238 is even N. I didn't check the sources, though. Gah4 (talk) 06:14, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
 * A recent edit says that it is fissile. Usually it is odd N that are fissile, and Pu238 is even N. I didn't check the sources, though. Gah4 (talk) 06:14, 23 November 2022 (UTC)