Title: Plutonium-238 to help power Perseverance on Mars
Headings: Plutonium-238 to help power Perseverance on Mars
Plutonium-238 to help power Perseverance on Mars
Explore further

Content: Next, the pellets are put into tubes and irradiated in ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor, which causes the neptunium to transmute into Pu-238. The pellets are moved to shielded hot cells in ORNL's Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. There, the Pu-238 is separated from the neptunium through a series of chemical processes, converted to an oxide powder, and then shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory for fabrication into ceramic pellets for the thermoelectric generator. Leftover neptunium is recycled to make more Pu-238. Pause Play
% buffered
00:00
00:00
Unmute Mute
Disable captions Enable captions
Settings
Captions Disabled
Quality 0
Speed Normal
Captions Go back to previous menu
Quality Go back to previous menu
Speed Go back to previous menu
0.5×
0.75×
Normal
1.25×
1.5×
1.75×
2×
4×
PIP
Exit fullscreen Enter fullscreen
Play
RNL produces some pretty out-of-this-world materials. Plutonium-238, a unique iridium alloy, and carbon-bonded carbon fiber are all key ingredients for deep space exploration. NASA uses these materials in the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG. An MMRTG is like a nuclear-powered battery pack that can sustain far-reaching space missions for decades. NASA's Perseverance mission to Mars is the latest to feature one of these generators outfitted with ORNL tech. Credit: