Kilopower Project: NASA Pushes Nuclear Power for Deep-Space Missions

[kevindavis007]

Many of our most ambitious space missions to space have been made possible using nuclear power. On Thursday (Jan. 18), scientists and officials from NASA and the Department of Energy gathered at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas to discuss the Kilopower project, the next generation of nuclear power plants for future space missions.

In the past, NASA has used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) to power spacecraft like Voyagers 1 and 2, the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Packages, and the Curiosity rover. This device directly converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. It has no moving parts, making it ideal for applications in space. However, it is not terribly efficient. Nuclear reactors can take advantage of active nuclear fission, or atom splitting, to be far more efficient, and NASA has been researching this technology for decades.

The United States flew its first space reactor, SNAP-10A, in 1965. However, from the late 1970s through the early 2000s, space reactor development has been largely unsuccessful. "There hasn't been any tangible progress in fission reactor technology in decades," Dave Poston, chief reactor designer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said during the conference.

Read More: http://www.isn-news.net/2018/01/kilopower-project-nasa-pushes-nuclear.html

[kidd]

"There hasn't been any tangible progress in fission reactor technology in decades," Dave Poston

Other than big improvements in materials, fuel reliability, corrosion control, operations, safety, robotic inspections, small modular reactors, and pebble bed reactors...right Mr. Poston?

What a moron.

[Oceander]

Other than big improvements in materials, fuel reliability, corrosion control, operations, safety, robotic inspections, small modular reactors, and pebble bed reactors...right Mr. Poston?

What a moron.

I think he means in space-based reactors, not reactors in general. 

[kidd]

I think he means in space-based reactors, not reactors in general.

You’re right.

Other than big improvements in materials, fuel reliability, corrosion control and small modular reactors...right Mr. Poston?

What a moron.

[driftdiver]

I think he means in space-based reactors, not reactors in general.

@Oceander
Well a big reason there hasn't been any progress is because the use of nuclear power in space has been largely banned.

only a small number of vehicles have used any kind of nuclear power and I dont think any had a full blown reactor.  (pun intended)

[Oceander]

@Oceander
Well a big reason there hasn't been any progress is because the use of nuclear power in space has been largely banned.

only a small number of vehicles have used any kind of nuclear power and I dont think any had a full blown reactor.  (pun intended)

Agreed

[Joe Wooten]

What do you want to bet that as soon as NASA announces they are launching a new interplanetary probe with this reactor, the nut cases at the Christic Institute come out of the woodwork filing lawsuits out the wazoo?