New Small Fission Reactor For Deep-space Missions Demonstrated

cylonlover writes "Exploring the regions of deep space beyond Mars means sending probes where solar power isn't practical. Since the 1960s, NASA has equipped its Apollo missions and unmanned explorers with Radioisotope Thermal Generators (RTGs). These have worked very well, but they run on plutonium 238, which is currently in short supply. Therefore, the Los Alamos National Laboratory is developing a new small nuclear reactor for spacecraft that uses uranium instead of plutonium to power Stirling engines and generate electricity. At the Nevada National Security Site's Device Assembly Facility near Las Vegas, engineers from Los Alamos, the NASA Glenn Research Center and National Security Technologies LLC conducted a Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions (DUFF) experiment that produced 24 watts of electricity using a pair of free-piston Stirling engines."

Comments

Re:Los Alamos is located in Nevada, a blue state.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the most beautiful poetry I have ever seen. Oh my God.

Re:What could possibly go wrong

[Nostromo21]

I love the smell of nu-cu-lar power in the morning!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hORaebYWDwk

Critical mass of U235 is around 52kg (100lbs), so just keep two halves as far away from each other as possible i.e. opposite ends of the ship.
Of course, even a fizzout isn't going to be real pleasant in space, but hey, at least half the crew still have a chance of crash landing on Mars! :)

Re:Los Alamos is located in Nevada, a blue state.

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be a Vogon.

Re:Los Alamos is located in Nevada, a blue state.

[Tablizer]

It's a HaiKKKu

We should NOT be using nuclear in space

[Anonymous Coward]

Why contaminate the rest of the Universe? We have ruined our own planet and now we're going to ruin someone else's.

They should only allow green energy in space - solar, or hydro, or wind turbines. Wind turbines would work fine on Mars...