#plutonium-238

[elementcattos]

Plutoniums! 238's design is based on their use in the Apollo 11 Mission, and 239 is based on their use in Nuclear Power Plants and weapons

Omg :3c I love Plutonium it's nice to see him finally getting some sibs

[bytetrending]

The Unlikely Revival of Nuclear Batteries

– In 1970, surgeons in Paris implanted the first nuclear-powered pacemaker, and over the next five years, at least 1,400 additional people received the devices, mostly in France and the United States. Encased in titanium, the batteries for these devices contained a radioactive isotope—typically about a tenth of a gram of plutonium-238—and could operate for decades without maintenance. The…

The Unlikely Revival of Nuclear Batteries

[eideard]

Milestone: Oak Ridge National Lab produces plutonium-238

Milestone: Oak Ridge National Lab produces plutonium-238

Plutonium-238 oxide pellet glowing from its own heat ❝With the production of 50 grams of plutonium-238, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have restored a U.S. capability dormant for nearly 30 years and set the course to provide power for NASA and other missions. ❝Plutonium-238 produces heat as it decays and can be used in systems that power spacecraft…

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[nuclearvault]

A pellet of Plutonium-238 oxide to be used in a radioisotope thermoelectric generator for either the Cassini mission to Saturn or the Galileo mission to Jupiter. The pellet is glowing red because of the heat generated by the radioactive (primarily alpha) decay of the fuel. Each pellet produces 64 watts of heat and, when thermally isolated, can glow brilliant orange.

[questionfart]

FUEL, THREE CENTIMETERS IN DIAMETER

[makeanx]

Kids,

We're out of plutonium.

We'll miss seeing the stars with you.

Love you all, don't forget about us.

[npr]

When NASA's next Mars rover blasts off later this month, the car-sized robot will carry with it nearly eight pounds of a special kind of plutonium fuel that's in short supply.

NASA has relied on that fuel, called plutonium-238, to power robotic missions for five decades.

But with supplies running low, scientists who want the government to make more are finding that it sometimes seems easier to chart a course across the solar system than to navigate the budget process inside Washington, D.C. [full story]