[2] PuO2 crystallizes in the fluorite motif, with the Pu4+ centers organized in a face-centered cubic array and oxide ions occupying tetrahedral holes.

This continues into the molten liquid state where the local Pu-O coordination number drops to predominantly 6-fold, compared to 8-fold in the stoichiometric fluorite structure.

[4] Plutonium dioxide is a stable ceramic material with an extremely low solubility in water and with a high melting point (2,744 °C).

Plutonium-238 dioxide is used as fuel for several deep-space spacecraft such as the Cassini, Voyager, Galileo and New Horizons probes as well as in the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars.

[9] Physicist Peter Zimmerman, following up a suggestion by Ted Taylor, calculated that a low-yield (1-kiloton) nuclear weapon could be made relatively easily from plutonium dioxide.