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ORNL achieves milestone with plutonium-238 sample
- dang 11y agoUrl changed from http://www.livescience.com/53227-plutonium-238-created-for-space-fuel.html http://www.livescience.com/53227-plutonium-238-created-for-s..., which is cribbed from this press release. Like most of the science PR mills, that one does not link to its sources.
- aurhum 11y agoThanks for that. I tried to find a better link, but my google-fu got stuck in 2015 it seems :)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ringshall 11y agoThis is a better link than the current one in the headline: https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-achieves-milestone-plutonium-238-sample https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-achieves-milestone-plutonium-... It's more recent (Dec 22nd, 2015) and discusses a new achievement: first production of Pu-238 in the USA in 30 years.
- dang 11y agoOh indeed, that's the one we want. Thanks! Changed from https://www.ornl.gov/news/making-fuel-exploring-space-0 https://www.ornl.gov/news/making-fuel-exploring-space-0.
- hoorayimhelping 11y agoJust for clarification, this is fuel for RTGs which power spacecraft that are far away from the sun, not fuel for spacecraft propulsion.
- chriskanan 11y agoThis is great news. My understanding from when I worked at JPL was thst NASA only had enough plutonium for about one more large RTG for the Mars 2020 mission (to power Curiosity 2.0). While RTGs are essential for deep space missions, they are also useful for closer destinations.
- peter303 11y agoTwo of the NASA missions are pretty much spoken for 1) Mars Science Lander 2 in 2020 2) Mission to Europa
- irixusr 11y agoHate to be a negative nancy... ..But we're making a fuss about restarting the production of something we'd already mastered, and we first made in 1941? I'll be more interested when an American commercial breeder reactor comes online.
- mikeash 11y agoProduction was suspended for 30 years. Resumption seems pretty noteworthy. Nobody is claiming this is some sort of first, and if it doesn't interest you, then move on. If you're interested in deep space probes then this is pretty important. If not, it's not.