Envirokooks beware, THIS is what will power spacecraft, not uselesssolar panels

Solar panels are fine for near-Earth operations on a small scale where
their miniscule amounts of power can be used, but not for deeper space
exploration.

BBC:

12 September 2012 Last updated at 12:00 ET
Nuclear space batteries could boost Sellafield jobs

Up to 50 jobs could be created at Sellafield in the development of
nuclear batteries to power spacecraft.

Chemists at Britain's National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) plan to make
the batteries using Sellafield's large store of waste plutonium.

The batteries could then be used as a power supply for the European
Space Agency's (Esa) spacecraft.

As well as the new jobs, this project could accrue significant UK
multi-million pound exports.

In 2009, Esa funded a pilot project to examine the cost and
practicality of establishing a European source of material for
Radioactive Power Sources (RPS).

RPSs are ultra-long life batteries for use in the Esa's deep space
programme.

The RPS batteries are not to launch the spacecraft, but to keep
instruments running over several decades.

Tim Tinsley, programme manager for NNL, said: "We're more than half
way through the £1m pilot proving the viability of being able to
extract the isotope [chemical element] from the civil plutonium
stockpiles.

"We have a quantity of this plutonium at our labs at the Sellafield
site and a team of highly experienced chemists are 'proving' the
chemical flow-sheet for the process."
Export potential

Currently, Esa uses an isotope called plutonium-238 for these
batteries, but this is only available from Russia and America.

It is also only available from military reactors, and supplies could
run out in about 2018.

This would mean the isotope being extracted at Sellafield - called
americium-241 - could not only be used in Esa's projects, but would
also open the door for an even greater multi-million pound export
potential to countries currently reliant on plutonium-238.

Mr Tinsley said: "Technically, there are no barriers to the success of
the project, it would be down to funding and politics within Europe
and they are already tightly constrained.

"Esa needs this fuel source for their space 'road-map' - they cannot
do it without it and we at NNL are doing everything we can to make
that a success."

But deep space exploration is only one use for the isotope that is
being explored.

"There'll always be domestic applications that require a power source
for a 20 or 30-year duration in inaccessible locations such as deep
sea or deep underground in oil wells," added Mr Tinsley.

In November, Esa will decide whether or not to continue the funding.

If funding is ratified, Mr Tinsley suggests that jobs could start
being created steadily from 2014 to a point of full production around
2020.

On Sep 13, 12:20*pm, "$27 TRILLION to pay for Kyoto"
wrote:
Solar panels are fine for near-Earth operations on a small scale where
their miniscule amounts of power can be used, but not for deeper space
exploration.

BBC:

*12 September 2012 Last updated at 12:00 ET
Nuclear space batteries could boost Sellafield jobs

Up to 50 jobs could be created at Sellafield in the development of
nuclear batteries to power spacecraft.

Chemists at Britain's National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) plan to make
the batteries using Sellafield's large store of waste plutonium.

The batteries could then be used as a power supply for the European
Space Agency's (Esa) spacecraft.

As well as the new jobs, this project could accrue significant UK
multi-million pound exports.

In 2009, Esa funded a pilot project to examine the cost and
practicality of establishing a European source of material for
Radioactive Power Sources (RPS).

RPSs are ultra-long life batteries for use in the Esa's deep space
programme.

The RPS batteries are not to launch the spacecraft, but to keep
instruments running over several decades.

Tim Tinsley, programme manager for NNL, said: "We're more than half
way through the £1m pilot proving the viability of being able to
extract the isotope [chemical element] from the civil plutonium
stockpiles.

"We have a quantity of this plutonium at our labs at the Sellafield
site and a team of highly experienced chemists are 'proving' the
chemical flow-sheet for the process."
Export potential

Currently, Esa uses an isotope called plutonium-238 for these
batteries, but this is only available from Russia and America.

It is also only available from military reactors, and supplies could
run out in about 2018.

This would mean the isotope being extracted at Sellafield - called
americium-241 - could not only be used in Esa's projects, but would
also open the door for an even greater multi-million pound export
potential to countries currently reliant on plutonium-238.

Mr Tinsley said: "Technically, there are no barriers to the success of
the project, it would be down to funding and politics within Europe
and they are already tightly constrained.

"Esa needs this fuel source for their space 'road-map' - they cannot
do it without it and we at NNL are doing everything we can to make
that a success."

But deep space exploration is only one use for the isotope that is
being explored.

"There'll always be domestic applications that require a power source
for a 20 or 30-year duration in inaccessible locations such as deep
sea or deep underground in oil wells," added Mr Tinsley.

In November, Esa will decide whether or not to continue the funding.

If funding is ratified, Mr Tinsley suggests that jobs could start
being created steadily from 2014 to a point of full production around
2020.

At 20+% thermal-dynamic conversion efficiency, those nuclear batteries
could prove quite invaluable to all sorts of deep space as well as
terrestrial applications. Most RPS or RTGs are currently operating at
far less than 10%, so there's plenty of room for their improvements
and overall cost reductions.

RPS or RTGs like operating in as cold of environment as possible, so
that those deeper space explorations are going to be well suited, but
we still need to get them deployed and on location much faster,
because most of us alive today will not survive long enough to ever
realize their benefits.

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