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The UK Space Agency and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) will collaborate on the world’s first space battery powered by the US-241.
The work, managed and funded by the UK Space Agency from NNL, will be delivered at a new £19 million laboratory in Cumbria equipped with next-generation equipment and technology. It will deliver a sovereign supply of fuel for space batteries in the face of global shortages, enabling the UK and its partners to drive new space science and research missions.
By creating new high-skilled jobs in the north-west of England, it will lead to innovation in radiochemistry and fission science and open up a new market for the UK’s space sector.
Atomic space batteries, also known as radioisotope power systems (RPS), release heat as the radioactivity within them decays. The heat can be used directly to prevent the spacecraft from cooling down and can be converted into electricity to power onboard systems. Batteries can last for decades without needing maintenance for the many years a spacecraft can travel.
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The support from the UK Space Agency follows a record UK investment in the European Space Agency for a range of new programmes, including £22 million for ENDURE (European Devices Using Radioisotope Energy), which will use radioisotopes to develop systems for warming and powering spacecraft. .
Regarded as ‘mission critical technology’ by space agencies in the UK and around the world, all Apollo missions had nuclear batteries, as have every rover that went to Mars. Until now, this has been powered by plutonium-238, a radioisotope produced only in the US, where supplies are limited, and Russia, so an alternative is urgently needed.
NNL, the UK’s national laboratory for nuclear fission, has been working on the effort since 2009, when its researchers first discovered that americium-241, a substitute for plutonium-238, is produced during the radioactive decay of spent fuel from nuclear reactors and that it has been around for more than 400 years. Emits power for time.
With an abundant supply – a new laboratory opening at NNL’s main central laboratory at the Sellafield site, home to the largest resource of Americium-241 available for extraction in the world – the new collaboration realized a proven scientific concept full-technology. It will be operational within the next four years and is expected to be the first used for the European Space Agency’s Argonaut mission to the Moon and future missions into deep space.
Science Minister George Freeman said:
This new capacity is a significant milestone for the North West Space Cluster, which will add skilled jobs to the existing 2,000 strong workforce.
This exciting work from the National Nuclear Laboratory is supported by over £19 million in government funding, creating the nuclear fuel that will put Sellafield and the North West firmly on the global space technology map.
Being able to offer a globally unique supply of Americium-241 will encourage investment and unlock growth opportunities for all types of UK industries looking to explore nuclear energy.
Professor Tim Tinsley, account director for this work at the National Nuclear Laboratory, said:
Space missions for the past 50 years have used plutonium-238 to prevent spacecraft from freezing, but it is in very limited supply. At NNL we have identified significant reserves of Americium-241, a radioisotope with similar properties to Plutonium-238 but with game-changing potential for the UK’s space ambitions.
This work, made possible by support from the UK Space Agency, will see us use decades of experience in separating and purifying used nuclear materials to unlock great public benefits, and goes to the heart of our mission in nuclear science. For the benefit of society.
UK Space Agency CEO Dr. Paul Bate said:
We are supporting the technology and capabilities to support ambitious space exploration missions and accelerate the development of the sector across the UK.
This innovative method of building Americium to power space missions will allow us not only to sustain exploration of the Moon and Mars for longer, but to venture further into space than ever before.
By supporting the expansion of the National Nuclear Laboratory, the UK will become the only country in the world capable of producing this viable alternative to plutonium, reducing the global space community’s reliance on limited supplies, which are increasingly difficult and expensive to obtain.
The UK Space Agency is committed to keeping space activities sustainable, and this resourceful technology exploits otherwise unusable waste plutonium byproducts without generating additional waste.
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