The fifth conference on "Plutonium Futures - The Science" was held from 7 to 11 July 2008 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Dijon, the capital of Burgundy in France. This series of conferences, focusing on plutonium and other actinide elements in complex media and materials, was surprisingly initiated only in 1997 to enhance the dialogue among scientists on the fundamental properties of plutonium and their technological applications. The conference has previously been held in Santa Fe (1997, 2000), Albuquerque (2003) and Asilomar (2006). For the first time in 2008 this conference was held outside the United States. Co-organized by the Atomic Weapons Establishment of the United Kingdom, the French Commissariat `a l'Énergie Atomique, and the JRC-Institute for Transuranium Elements of the European Commission, in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Plutonium Futures Conference was co-sponsored by the European Commission, the AREVA company, the Côte d'Or Region, and the Pole Nucléaire de Bourgogne. ; JRC.DG.E.6-Actinides research