![]() In 2005, Huygens was deployed to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Light Water Reactor (LWR) used nuclear fuel is composed of 95 percent uranium, 1 percent transuranics, and 4 percent fission products. Named after astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens, the pair of spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004 after a 2.2-billion-mile (3.5-billion-kilometer) voyage. 15, 1997, with the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe. The iridium cladding around that precious nuclear fuel was produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex.Ĭassini launched on Oct. By combining the Pu 239 produced by nuclear reactors with depleted uranium, MOX can be used to fabricate one new fuel assembly from every 8 used fuel assemblies. In fact, it enters into the composition of MOX fuel mixed uranium and plutonium oxide. ![]() Cassini’s RTGs contained plutonium from the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. Plutonium-239 is primarily used as a fuel to power nuclear reactors. RTGs are lightweight, compact spacecraft electrical power systems that have flown successfully on 23 previous U.S. The successful June packaging and delivery. Contained within three cylindrical power sources called radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), they produced the heat and electricity that kept Cassini on track and responsive throughout its long journey. The Department of Energy recently shipped half a kilogram of plutonium oxide pellets from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Los Alamos National Laboratory, the agency announced July 18, marking the largest such shipment since the DOE restarted domestic plutonium-238 production over a decade ago. ![]() Those components were the iridium-clad pellets of plutonium-238 developed by the Department of Energy decades ago. ![]()
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