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
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Content: Having the resources we have right here makes ORNL well suited to produce the nation's supply of Pu-238. We have a lot of scientists and engineers all across the lab involved with this effort, and it's very exciting to them to be contributing to space exploration." It's not an easy process, and ORNL, DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy and NASA have invested time, money, research and bright minds into improving it. ORNL receives neptunium-237 feedstock from Idaho National Laboratory, which stores the nation's inventory. Once at ORNL, the neptunium oxide is mixed with aluminum and pressed into pellets. 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
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RNL produces some pretty out-of-this-world materials.