Author Topic: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions  (Read 40420 times)

Offline Tea Party Space Czar

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #60 on: 08/27/2015 01:11 pm »
You have to keep pushing - even when you get your way on Capital Hill.  Good news if/when it happens.  It would be nice if all of our deep space missions had Pu238 as an option if they desired.

http://spacenews.com/doe-to-crank-out-new-plutonium-238-in-2019/

Eventually cranking out 1.5 kilos a year.

Hooray Deep Space Science.

Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #61 on: 12/09/2017 03:38 pm »
A 2008 JPL briefing on Pu-238 production and requirements. You can look at this and see how far we've progressed. (I may have an original, not scanned, version of this file. If so, I'll swap them out.)

Note: this is a HUGE file.
« Last Edit: 12/09/2017 06:49 pm by Blackstar »

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #62 on: 12/10/2017 12:42 pm »
There's also some info from April 2016 here:

http://fiso.spiritastro.net/telecon/Wham_4-20-16/


Offline docmordrid

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #63 on: 12/31/2017 05:57 pm »
And what of Kilopower? There was supposed the be a Q4 test, so anyone hear a result? Seems it could make Pu moot.

https://energy.gov/articles/powering-nasa-s-human-reach-red-planet

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170002010.pdf
« Last Edit: 12/31/2017 05:58 pm by docmordrid »
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Offline spacetraveler

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #64 on: 12/31/2017 06:24 pm »
I haven't seen this article discussed yet.

https://www.space.com/36217-plutonium-238-nuclear-spacecraft-fuel-production.html

Apparently there is another effort being led by a private company to start an alternative production line to the DOE one that will utilize Canadian reactors. Their goal is to produce 5 kilos per year.
« Last Edit: 12/31/2017 06:25 pm by spacetraveler »

Offline grythumn

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #65 on: 01/18/2019 05:01 pm »
Oak Ridge National Laboratory automates key process in plutonium-238 production

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/oak-ridge-national-laboratory-automates-key-process-plutonium-238-production

Quote
“Automating part of the Pu-238 production process is helping push annual production from 50 grams to 400 grams, moving closer to NASA’s goal of 1.5 kilograms per year by 2025,” said ORNL’s Bob Wham. “The automation replaces a function our team did by hand and is expected to increase the output of pressed pellets from 80 to 275 per week.”

Once the pellets are pressed and enclosed in aluminum tubing, they are irradiated at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor and chemically processed into Pu-238 at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. In 2012, NASA reached an agreement with the Department of Energy to restart production of Pu-238, and ORNL was selected to lead the project.

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #66 on: 01/18/2019 08:53 pm »
Oak Ridge National Laboratory automates key process in plutonium-238 production

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/oak-ridge-national-laboratory-automates-key-process-plutonium-238-production

Quote
“Automating part of the Pu-238 production process is helping push annual production from 50 grams to 400 grams, moving closer to NASA’s goal of 1.5 kilograms per year by 2025,” said ORNL’s Bob Wham. “The automation replaces a function our team did by hand and is expected to increase the output of pressed pellets from 80 to 275 per week.”

Once the pellets are pressed and enclosed in aluminum tubing, they are irradiated at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor and chemically processed into Pu-238 at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. In 2012, NASA reached an agreement with the Department of Energy to restart production of Pu-238, and ORNL was selected to lead the project.

I've been in meetings where we've been briefed about Pu-238 production plans about once or twice a year for a few years now and I'm still mystified by some of this stuff. Around 2015 or so, the plan was to get up to 1.5 kg per year by 2018. Then that slipped to 19, then 22, and now this says 2025? I'd like to know why it keeps slipping. Now the demand has gone down a bit because Europa Clipper does not need it, but that also comes with a caveat, because a program does not officially "need" Pu-238 until a certain point, so technically EC didn't "need" it a few years ago. But when we did our 2008/9 study on restarting Pu-238 production, we considered it to be urgent back then, and they're not going to get to the full production rate until 16 years after we wrote that report?

Offline russianhalo117

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Re: Wired article on Pu-238 production for space missions
« Reply #67 on: 01/02/2020 09:09 pm »
ORNL P-238 update livestream (podcast):
« Last Edit: 01/02/2020 09:10 pm by russianhalo117 »

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