NASA's deep-space nuclear-power crisis may soon end, thanks to a clever new robot in Tennessee
The US government says a new robot is poised to help it create a reliable, long-term supply chain of plutonium-238 (Pu-238): a radioactive material NASA requires to explore deep space.
NASA uses Pu-238 to power its most epic space missions— among them New Horizons (now beyond Pluto), the Voyagers (now in interstellar space), and Cassini (now part of Saturn).
[...] NASA tried to address the shrinking of its supply in the 1990s, but the agency and its partners didn't secure funding to create a new pipeline for Pu-238 until 2012. That work, which gets about $20 million in funding per year, is finally starting to move from the research phase toward full-scale production. By 2025, the Department of Energy hopes to meet the NASA-mandated need of 3.3 pounds (1,500 grams) per year.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is located in Tennessee and leading the work, says it recently proved there is a way to produce eight times as much Pu-238 as it made just a couple of years ago, thanks to a new automated robot. [...] This week, the lab said in a press release that it's ready to push annual production to more than 14 ounces (400 grams) per year, an eight-fold increase.
Cassini carried 33 kilograms of plutonium. New Horizons had 9,750 grams (lower than the 10,900 grams, 1/3 of the Cassini amount, called for in the original design).
It's time to send a probe to Uranus and Neptune already.
Previously: US Resumes Making Pu-238 after Decades Long Hiatus
NASA Unlikely to Have Enough Plutonium-238 for Missions by the Mid-2020s
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Tuesday January 15 2019, @07:12AM (2 children)
Thanks for doubting that assertion. On reflection, the "one gram" is probably from my faltering memory. I should think that it would take at least 454 grams (one pound) to achieve that effect. I regret that I'm unable to locate the book from which I read the statistic... my library is packed away, pending a move.
Thank you for reminding me to avoid "talking out of my ass" :-).
Nonetheless, the alpha emitter nature of plutonium isotopes make them extremely hazardous to life forms as we know them, and some have extraordinarily long lifetimes. I prefer that we avoid producing them and leaving them about "for the kids to find".
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday January 15 2019, @11:38AM
Your new figure is just as false as the 1 gram assertion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens#Plutonium_power_source [wikipedia.org]
33 kg (73 lbs) spreads across the whole planet, and you get an utterly unnoticeable jump in cancer deaths. If a similar-sized RTG were to blow up in the 2030s, we could probably find a cure for most cancers before most of those people died.
Maybe you were thinking of some other isotope? The one used in RTGs is plutonium-238.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 15 2019, @06:54PM
I prefer to keep things civil on Soylent, and don't tend to use phrases like "talking out of your ass".*
I do think however that you ought to do a little more research about plutonium 238, as it is not nearly as toxic as you might think. You should avoid storing it under your bed in a cardboard box, but once it is sent into space there is no possible damage it might do.
* It's spelled "arse" anyway.