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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @04:51PM (2 children)
Kidding aside, what kind of MORON announces that more plutonium will be produced ?
Stuff like this should be a very closely guarded secret for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 14 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)
It's not useful for making nuclear weapons. It's a byproduct of other nuclear processes. It's a very small amount too. It would not be worth it to attack a well-guarded facility and become the subject of an intense manhunt.
If terrorists want to get nuclear material or nukes, they should attack targets in Pakistan.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 14 2019, @08:33PM
This is Pu-238; The Bomb uses Pu-239.
I _think_ 238 has a far shorter half life than 239. In any case, a non-Bomb isotope the size of a golf ball will glow red hot.
Plutonium facilitates a far-more credible threat than does Uranium, as it can be made in a small nuclear reactor than separated from the spent fuel by a chemical process. Uranium requires truly prodigious quantities of electricity to make it with a Calutron, a large Mass Spectrometer, or a whole bunch of $$$ Uranium Hexafluoride Gas Turbine Cascades.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]