Animated dog, oddly not anxious, started mauling radioactive stuff (9)
I believe the answer is:
plutonium
'radioactive stuff' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both substances as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'animated dog oddly not anxious started mauling' is the wordplay.
'animated dog' becomes 'pluto' (I've seen this before).
'oddly not' indicates alternate letters (not the letters in odd-numbered positions).
'started' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'mauling' is 'm'.
The alternate letters of 'anxious' are 'niu'.
'pluto'+'niu'+'m'='PLUTONIUM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plutonium that I've seen before include "Fuel for nuclear reactors" , "Nuclear material" , "Radioactive element" , "sign of this bomb-making material" , "Radioactive material, Pu" .)