DOE/LANL Jurisdiction Fire Danger Rating:
  1. LANL Home
  2. Media
  3. Newsletters
  4. STE Highlights
September 23, 2025

New Plutonium Science Laboratory serves critical national security missions

New center prepares for fiscal year 2026 operations

Feature Plus
Deputy Director for Science, Technology and Engineering Pat Fitch cuts the ribbon at a recent celebration of the PluS Lab, which finished ahead of schedule and under budget. Credit to: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Science Laboratory (PluS Lab) has received its first plutonium shipment and is poised to begin operations, marking a pivotal milestone in the Laboratory’s expansion of fundamental plutonium science capabilities. The achievement reflects years of planning, investment and mission-focused program development.

Why this matters: Plutonium science underpins critical national security missions, from nuclear nonproliferation to nuclear energy, forensics and weapons. The PluS Lab is equipped with advanced capabilities in molecular chemistry and materials science, molten-salt science and aqueous systems to directly support these core mission areas.

How they did it: Renovations to the PluS Lab were finished ahead of schedule and $1.2 million under budget, thanks to a collaboration with the Science and Technology Operations division. The upgraded facility now offers state-of-the-art analytical instruments, fume hoods and custom gloveboxes for small-scale plutonium-239 experiments.

Key capabilities: The PluS Lab is a unique resource within the U.S. Department of Energy complex for research in plutonium science, including separations and recycling technologies, novel material discovery, electrochemistry, advanced property measurements and more.

  • Research will explore new plutonium compounds and novel plutonium separations, and it will advance analytical methods for plutonium-bearing compounds and materials.
  • The facility’s unclassified setting will foster broad collaboration and workforce development.

Funding: U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration

LA-UR-25-29137

Share

Stay up to date
Subscribe to Stay Informed of Recent Science, Technology and Engineering Highlights from LANL
Subscribe Now

More STE Highlights Stories

STE Highlights Home
Thumbnail Uranium

Unlocking uranium’s hidden influence in the behavior of plutonium alloys

Work advances understanding of nuclear materials performance

Thumbnail Mpa

Why stretched graphene conducts heat on metal surfaces

Study aids efforts for advanced heat management in next-generation coatings

Thumbnail Payload

Two ions with similar masses won’t sneak past this new space instrument

Advancing technology for space weather forecasting

Thumbnail Braido

Braido honored for accelerator control system breakthroughs

Given award at international conference

Thumbnail Soot

Coated black carbon finding makes Earth system models much more accurate

Although water repellent by nature, soot can uptake water as it ages

Thumbnail statistics

Los Alamos scientists win American Statistical Society award for computer model analysis method

This approach offers a new way to examine how two models behave together