Britain to use spent nuclear fuel for batteries to power deep space craft
Friday, September 14, 2012 - 07:31
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org)—To reduce the cost of cleaning up nuclear waste at Britain's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility in Cumbria, workers from the British National Nuclear Laboratory have been harvesting americium-241, in hopes of using it as part of nuclear batteries for long range spacecraft built by the European Space Agency (ESA). It's all part of a £1 million pilot program designed to find ways to use existing fissionable materials for use in future space missions.