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The shipment earlier this year of heat source plutonium-238 from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to its Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) represents a critical step toward fuelling planned space missions with radioisotope power systems, NASA had said.
- Source: NEI Magazine
- Date: Thursday, 30 November 2023
- Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsnasa-moves-closer-to-use-of-plutonium-238-to-power-space-missions-11335593
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).
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Thursday, 02 September 2021
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/European-and-US-nuclear-companies-contribute-to-sp