Researchers studying the crystalline structure of radioactive plutonium have happened onto the first plutonium-based superconductor. Like other superconductors, this one carries electricity with zero resistance, but it doesn’t fit neatly into any known family of superconducting substances.
Plutonium, the explosive heart of most nuclear weapons, is too radioactive and toxic for the find to lead to any practical applications.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.