NASA may refuse to buy Russian plutonium

NASA may refuse to purchase Russian plutonium-238, which is used as a fuel for spacecraft, in favor of an American private company, the news agency reports "RNS" with reference to the Daily Caller publication.

NASA wants to procure 238 plutonium from Technical Solutions Management (TSM). Now NASA buys it from Russia for $ 45 thousand per ounce (in ounces about 28 grams.), And in order to fill the spacecraft you need 10 pounds (about 4,5 kg),

- the report says.
Thus, the procurement of fuel for refueling one spacecraft is over $ 7,2 million.
As stated in TSM, a company can increase its plutonium production if NASA needs it to “minimize the risk to the space program.” It is noted that after the Cold War, the United States stopped making new plutonium-238, now the country has exactly the number that would allow the planned NASA missions to be completed before the 2026 year. TSM plans to start producing the right amount of Pu-238 by the 2022 year.
Most US spacecraft, including the Voyager and Curiosity Mars Rover, used 238 plutonium as fuel. According to the publication, the future planned NASA missions will require even more such fuel. “Currently, only 77 pounds of plutonium-238 remain in the United States and only half of it is in suitable condition. This is enough only for three or four missions, ”the message says.

Comments

[NEXUS 74]

I doubt very much that mattresses will abandon Russian plutonium if we are selling it to them for now ... and I’m not looking very well at the United States with this quantity of fuel ...

[maxim947]

I doubt it))))))))) Only that there will be a new link in cooperation - this is a private company that will continue to purchase plutonium in the Russian Federation. After all, the feeder is not bad, so do not fit ....

[NEXUS 74]

Quote: maxim947

I doubt it))))))))) Only that there will be a new link in cooperation - this is a private company that will continue to purchase plutonium in the Russian Federation. After all, the feeder is not bad, so do not fit ....

But there is one point ... there is talk that we can close this shop to them, stop selling Plutonium. Apparently that's why mattresses are looking for alternative suppliers. Yes, only plutonium is not pig iron and not even gold ... not every country produces it and the amounts are incommensurable with, say, the same iron ore ...

[hirurg]

It is impossible to completely abandon Russian plutonium! If that - send a strategic premise.)))

[Alex koch]

I’ll even say more, no country produces it

[Vadim237]

It is "mined" by all countries that have nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors.

[cost]

Plutonium is not mined, but obtained by synthesis. Plutonium is produced in Russia at the Chelyabinsk-40 enterprise. It is made both in Japan and Iran. And of course, started being produced by Technical Solutions Management (TSM) USA

[Alex_Tug]

a new link in cooperation will appear - this is a private company that will continue to purchase plutonium in the Russian Federation.

This does not happen, the control is tight.

[Topotun]

Especially considering for example the bankruptcy of Westinghouse .....

[opus]

Quote: NEXUS74

I doubt very much that mattresses will abandon Russian plutonium if we are selling it to them for now ... and I’m not looking very well at the United States with this quantity of fuel ...

1. We ourselves are not profitable, troublesome and "no exhaust"
2: Prior to 1988, the United States produced plutonium-238 (not to be confused with plutonium-239) as part of its nuclear program. After the production of Savannah River Site (the main contribution to plutonium-238) closed due to environmental (!!!) problems, they turned to Russia for the production of plutonium for the needs of the United States .
Russia continued to extract material by processing nuclear fuel at the Mayak nuclear industrial complex. Russia sold the first package of plutonium weighing 18 kilograms to the States in 1993 for more than 1 500 000 dollars per kilogram. Russia has become the only supplier of the planet, but soon stopped accepting orders.


3: At 2009, Congress threw NASA 10 million $ instead of the requested $ 30 million to renew.
NASA and DOE asked for money to fund the restart. They estimate that it will cost between $ 75 million and $ 90 million for five years, and both agencies want to share the costs (because DOE makes plutonium and NASA uses it).


4. So far, together, they got 50 grams on 2015
Curiosity (3,8 kg of plutonium) emptied all their reserves: on 2015 in the USA there were only about 35 kg of plutonium-238 (of which only half is suitable for use in space missions in quality.)
The plans (at 2015) of NASA and the Department of Energy to bring the annual production of plutonium-238 to 1,37 kg.

Quote: hirurg

It is impossible to completely abandon Russian plutonium! If that - send a strategic premise.)))

They will refuse (and ours will refuse)
So they do


US Department of Energy successfully produces plutonium at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee

Pu-238 is made from Neptunium-237
An NP-237 pellet loaded into a hollow aluminum tube is placed in a highly isotopic reactor, Np-238 is created, which quickly disintegrates and becomes Pu-238.

The irradiated granules are then dissolved and ORNL employees use a chemical process to separate plutonium from any remaining neptunium. The purified plutonium is converted back to Pu-238 oxide powder, packaged and shipped to Los Alamos for final processing.

so we have:


2016 produced 100g Pu-238
Plans for the initial production of 400 grams of Pu-238 per year on average at ORNL, and then increase this number by additional automation and expansion of the scope of the processes.

[megajob]

So let me ask, where does the plutonium that “burns” disappears in the RBMK (a la Chernobyl) reactors? In Russia, "this shoe polish" is beyond measure. Moreover, there are absolutely no rumors that they stopped updating warheads and producing new ones. So obviously in Russia there is no problem "weld" plutonium "mountains". Again, why the hell are they chemically “scraping” one plutonium from another? Isn't it easier (cheaper) to bubble it up like uranium in a centrifuge and to “separate the grains from the chaff" *?

[Mountain shooter]

Wind them in the back and a torch in ... Russia with this plutonium will not gobble up, and from a lack of sales - it will not go bankrupt. It will come in handy.

[andranick]

So, purely remark: whoever did not notice, in the photo uranium-238

[Aleksandr12]

I think everyone noticed. Just plutonium, unlike uranium, is a phonite and you can’t hide it with a test tube (from the background) Apparently there are no fools to keep plutonium in vitro

[andranick]

So yes, there are no fools :)

[opus]

Quote: andranick

So, purely remark: whoever did not notice, in the photo uranium-238

238 plutonium granule, a source of fuel used in most NASA space research (Los Alamos National Laboratory)


empty nuclear battery, 1973


American RTG used for sensors on the ocean floor.


One of the "tablets" of plutonium-238 that support Curiosity on the go


Stirling Radioisotope Generator


Plutonium Oxide Tablet-238

[Altona]

Quote: maxim947

I doubt it))))))))) Only that there will be a new link in cooperation - this is a private company that will continue to purchase plutonium in the Russian Federation. After all, the feeder is not bad, so do not fit ....

-------------------------
The technology for producing plutonium is not for everyone at Horns and Hooves LLC. Let them buy Russian gas through Ukraine through Slovakia, anyway, not from the "achressor country."

[Alex koch]

In general, it looks like another duck. Vicki writes, “In the United States, plutonium-238 isotope production was stopped in 1988 (Savannah River). [12] The US Department of Energy signed a five-year contract in 1992 to purchase 10 kg of isotope from Russia and increase supply to no more than 40 kg. Several contracts were concluded as part of the contract, the agreement was extended.

[Slovak]

Maybe recommend NASA and fly to the ISS on the ships of the same company? Although, you can increase the cost of transportation by purchasing fuel

[APASUS]

Honestly, not really believing given the figures on the restoration of plutonium-238 production in the USA, the production of plutonium-238 isotope was stopped in 1988. And most importantly, it is such a specific technology that it is impossible to establish production immediately, this product is almost exclusive