New Plutonium-238 for Future NASA Missions

Production of Pu for use in radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) which provide power for instruments on deep space missions is being resumed in the United States. Key activities, such as the transport of the neptunium to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, irradiation of neptunium, and chemical processing to recover the newly generated 238Pu, have been demonstrated with the initial amounts of ~100 g PuO2 produced. Product samples have been shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory for evaluation. The radiochemical separations necessary to establish the capability to recover and purify both Np/Pu have been demonstrated and improved using targets irradiated in the HFIR. Additional tests will be carried out over the next several years to further develop and optimize the separations and scale-up the operations to the required level.