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| ESA moon lander. (Picture from: http://inhabitat.com/) |
To reduce the cost of nuclear waste cleanup americium-241, at Britain's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility in Cumbria, workers from the British National Nuclear Laboratory have been harvesting americium-241, in hopes of using it as part of nuclear batteries for long range spacecraft built by the European Space Agency (ESA). It's all part of a £1 million pilot program designed to find ways to use existing fissionable materials for use in future space missions.
Quoted from Physorg, the idea would follow designs already used by the United States to power its Cassini and Voyager space probes and now in use by the Mars rover, Curiosity. Nuclear material gives off heat for many years, which can be used directly to keep a craft warm, or be converted into electricity for use by electronic components.
The team has reportedly already harvested some amount of americium-241 from the plutonium waste left over from the production of nuclear weapons. The Sellafield facility reprocesses or separates plutonium, uranium and other fissionable materials from spent nuclear fuel, some of which is used for other purposes such as creating new fuel for nuclear reactors. It's also the site of what will be a new nuclear power station due to begin operation in 2025.
ESA would like to find a replacement plutonium-238 which is currently only available in the United States and Russia. ESA also believe that the americium-241 will replace the plutonium.
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| Sellafield Reprocessing Plant. (Picture from: http://cleantechnica.com/) |
Each nuclear battery takes only five kilograms of material, which would mean Britain could supply all that would be needed (the Sellafield facility is believed to house some 100 tonnes of waste plutonium) by the ESA for the foreseeable future. Batteries made using it could be used to support missions to other planets and other exploratory projects.
In addition to the material to fuel spacecraft, americium-241 has attracted other countries, such as China and India for different purposes. They are interested to make the americium-241 as in long term undersea probes, or in buoys outfitted with sensors to monitor sea conditions. Thus, the market for long duration nuclear batteries might be expanding, which would make harvesting americium-241 not only cost efficient but perhaps at some point, profitable. *** [RIF | PHYSORG | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 27092012]
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