The European Space Agency has awarded a contract to Belgian company Tractebel to evaluate the possibility of producing plutonium-238 for use in space exploration. Separately, US company X-energy, working as part of a General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems team, is to develop key fuel fabrication processes in support of a first-of-a-kind rocket powered by nuclear thermal propulsion under a contract awarded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
New Nuclear 01 September 2021
Three reactor design concept proposals for a nuclear thermal propulsion system for deep space missions have been selected by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy. The reactor will be a critical component of a nuclear thermal engine, which would utilise high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.
New Nuclear 14 July 2021
NASA has marked the 60th anniversary of the launch into space of its first nuclear-powered satellite. Transit IV-A - an experimental navigational satellite with a radioisotope-powered generator - was launched by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from Cape Canaveral on 29 June 1961, and NASA has since flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system.
New Nuclear 30 June 2021