Production demonstrated for space exploration RTGs

摘要

The Department of Energy announced on December 22 that Oak Ridge National Laboratory has produced about 50 grams of plutoni-um-238, demonstrating that the DOE's approach to resuming such production is conceptually valid. It is expected that a gradual scale-up of the system will eventually meet the needs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the Pu-238 to power various systems in exploratory spacecraft, especially in the outer solar system where solar panels have limited effectiveness.