US plans Plutonium production for 'secret missions' (moved from ATSNN)

For the first time since the Cold War, the US plans to resume the production of plutonium 238. Project managers stated the highly radioactive element is for secret missions. Experts on the matter said it would likely power espionage devices on both land and in water.



The US last made Plutonium in the 80's. During the Cold War large amounts were stocked by both the US and Russia. It would not take much to cause harm to people. 238 is much more radioactive than 239, which is used in nuclear weapons.
As far as the "secret missions", it is reasonable to believe that the Plutonium will be used to power devices that will hopefully in return keep all americans safe and the US at a high level of intelligence.
With the stories of missing devices and such in the US, its not hard to imagine the scenarios that could occur if this plutonium got into the wrong hands. Hopefully, extreme care will be taken with this.

Extream care lol, didn't you just heard couple days ago illigals with fake doc. can get into a nuclear power plant lol

I love my country but i think it would be extremely hypocritical to tell the world not to develop WMD's and then go ahead and keep producing our own. We already have one of the most powerful military in the world with nukes already on hand. We've invaded Iraq for that reason, we are giving Iran and North Korea a hard time because of Nuclear proliferation but yet this administration wants to create small bunker busting nukes amongst other classified projects. I think this would just urge the rest of the world to keep up with the United States Weapons program. I agree with defense programs like the failed star wars idea to shoot down any nuclear missle coming towards our country utilizing a laser from space. but developing something that can cause wide spread death is not a defensive technique its just stupid and a waste of our tax money

Although this is already on ATS both as a forum thread and as a news submission, here are some facts on it.
Unlike what some have posted, 238 is not used for nuclear weapons. It is used for thermoelectric generators such as what is used in satelites and space probes. I also understand that it is also used to power devices like underwater listening devices that are used to detect "silent" subs.
Plutonium 239, creates a chain reaction upon reaching critical mass (unlike 238) which is why 239 is used in the production of nuclear weapons.

My apologies thanks for the info. I get a lil carried away