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Company chosen to head EU-backed Pulsar consortium Tractebel will research dynamic radioisotope power systems powered by plutonium 238. Courtesy Tractabel. Belgium-based engineering company Tractebel has been selected to lead the Pulsar consortium, a research and engineering project to develop nuclear technology to power space missions.

The project is funded by the European commission through the Euratom Research and Training Programme, a complementary funding programme to Horizon Europe covering nuclear research and innovation. The Euratom programme has a budget of €1.38bn for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025.

Tractebel will research dynamic radioisotope power systems (RPSs) powered by plutonium 238 (Pu-238) for space applications. RPSs are essential for supplying spacecraft and astronauts with electricity and heat where the sun does not provide enough energy. They use heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) to produce electricity.

Date: Saturday, 09 July 2022
Original article: nucnet.org/news/tractebel-to-research-radioisotope-power-systems-powered-by-plutonium-7-5-2022

Following a recent contract awarded by the European Space Agency (ESA), Belgium’s Tractebel has been selected to head the consortium of PULSAR, a research and innovation project funded by the European Commission to develop nuclear technology to power space missions. 

Date: Friday, 24 June 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newstractebel-to-lead-european-space-research-on-radioisotope-power-systems-9797730

The US space agency NASA has selected three design concepts for a 40KW nuclear power system designed to last at least 10 years in the lunar environment to help "lay the groundwork for powering our long-term human presence on other worlds".

Date: Thursday, 23 June 2022
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Nuclear-power-on-the-Moon-NASA-selects-three-propo

Tractebel will lead the PULSAR consortium conducting research on dynamic radioisotope power systems (RPS) fuelled by plutonium-238 (Pu-238) for space applications - to provide spacecraft and astronauts with electricity and heat when the sun does not supply enough power.

Date: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/PULSAR-project-to-research-nuclear-technology-for

Experts at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) webinar “Atoms for Space: Nuclear Systems for Space Exploration”, agreed that nuclear technology will continue to play a vital role in future space missions.  More than 500 people from 66 countries attended the webinar on 15 and 16 February. Experts from the public and private sectors concluded that humanity is poised to embark on a new age of space travel to Mars, our solar system and beyond as nuclear power and related technologies promise to make interplanetary missions faster, more efficient and economical.  

Date: Thursday, 24 February 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsiaea-says-nuclear-is-vital-for-space-missions-9503585

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a contract to Belgian company Tractebel to evaluate the possibility of producing plutonium-238 (Pu-238) for use in space exploration. Separately, US company X-energy, working as part of a General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) team, is to develop key fuel fabrication processes in support of a first-of-a-kind rocket powered by nuclear thermal propulsion under a contract awarded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Date: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/European-and-US-nuclear-companies-contribute-to-sp

NASA has marked the 60th anniversary of the launch into space of its first nuclear-powered satellite. Transit IV-A - an experimental navigational satellite with a radioisotope-powered generator - was launched by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from Cape Canaveral on 29 June 1961, and NASA has since flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system.

Date: Thursday, 01 July 2021
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/NASA-marks-60-years-of-nuclear-power-in-space

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) said on 11 June that it had recently awarded contracts to General Atomics (Track A, $22M) and Blue Origin (Track B, $2.5M) with Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) providing critical support to both prime contractors in the first phase of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (Draco) programme. Draco will develop a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system for cislunar operations, targeting a full-scale, on-orbit demonstration in 2025. USNC-Tech is the only company participating in both Track A and Track B teams.

Date: Wednesday, 23 June 2021
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-darpa-awards-contracts-for-draco-programme-8840312

A new publication by the US Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration (2021)” seeks to identify primary technical and programmatic challenges, merits, and risks for maturing space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to a future human Mars exploration mission. The study, undertaken by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Technologies Committee, was sponsored by NASA.

Date: Friday, 19 February 2021
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-report-looks-at-space-nuclear-propulsion-for-mars-exploration-8532029