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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

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

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