Researchers will analyze the sample for chemical purity and plutonium-238 content to determine whether adjustments need to be made before scaling up the process. The success of Wham and a team of engineers and technicians at ORNL came two years after NASA started funding the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy through a roughly $15 million per year effort to revive the department’s capability to make plutonium-238.
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The production process begins in Idaho, where neptunium-237 feedstock is housed and shipped to the Tennessee facility as needed.
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The Oak Ridge scientists found they could take a mass of neptuinium-237 from the Idaho National Laboratory, mix with its aluminum and press it into high-density pellets.
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The irradiated pellets are then dissolved and ORNL staff use a chemical process to separate the plutonium from remaining neptunium. The plutonium for that mission is being produced from the existing stockpile. Those targets are irradiated inside the reactor to produce the plutonium.
Plutonium-238, not to be confused with its weapons-grade variant, Pu-239, powers spacecraft by producing heat through radioactive decay. The agency only has about two or three missions left worth of plutonium, and a lot of missions it needs to conduct. Fortunately, the additional material that will be produced at ORNL can be blended with the existing portion that doesn’t meet specifications to extend the usable inventory.
According to ORNL, the laboratory will soon be making 300 to 400 g (10.5 to 14.1 oz) per year, which will increase to an average of 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) per year.
Wham established that the production of Pu-238 was shown that the process is working, which would lead to the next phase of the mission.
“The supply of Pu-238 for RPS (Radioistope Power Systems) is both expensive and scarce”, according to a “Nuclear Power Assessment Study” that was released in June, “so its efficient use and stewardship remain central challenges for NASA and DOE”.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced Tuesday it had achieved production of 50 grams of plutonium-238.
Future missions powered by RTGs may include investigative journeys to the water-hosting moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
The DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy develops, manufactures, tests and delivers radioisotope power systems for space exploration and national security missions and maintains responsibility for nuclear safety throughout all aspects of the missions.
Pu-238 powers spacecrafts with the heat produced through radioactive decay, a method that’s been essential to previous missions like the Viking missions on Mars, the Voyager spacecraft, and the recent Curiosity Mars Rover and New Horizons space probe. It emits a large amount of heat as it decays into uranium-234, and that heat is then converted into electrical energy by NASA MMRTGs.
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ORNL said in a statement that they now have a complete infrastructure that can provide steady and growing supply of Plutonium-238 for future space missions. Even NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, now deep into its third Earth year seeking signs of habitable conditions on the Red Planet is using MMRTG for its energy.
