{"id":20524,"date":"2016-01-06T21:48:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T21:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yaabot.com\/?p=20524"},"modified":"2024-01-19T18:58:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T13:28:38","slug":"why-we-need-more-plutonium-238","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/why-we-need-more-plutonium-238\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Need More Plutonium-238"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Remember the New Horizons mission? Beautiful images of Pluto will remain our closest encounter with any planet for the next few centuries at least. It’s a momentous achievement for humanity – and it was realised largely thanks to an element after the planet itself – Plutonium. The New Horizons spacecraft used plutonium-238 to generate electrical power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, almost all our photos of objects in the solar system have plutonium to thank – the Voyager missions that brought us Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus – are still running multiple decades later thanks to a plutonium power source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have all sorts of energy sources for our machineries \u2013 from fossil fuels to nuclear reactors, and yes, solar power too. But the problem with them is that they need regular maintenance for their constant operation and are mostly bulky. And of course, none of them are as efficient as nuclear power. Plus, what about remote areas that have to operate unmanned for a very long duration \u2013 such as the deep-space missions and the bottom of the oceans? Nuclear power helps, of course. But it is specifically an isotope of plutonium – plutonium-238, that’s been helping us embark on new frontiers – both down here and up in the cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plutonium-238 is one of the 15 isotopes of the element plutonium. It is highly radioactive, with a half-life of 87.7 years. Plutonium-238 undergoes alpha-decay to give uranium-234, releasing 5.6 MeV of energy in the form of heat while it’s at it. Of course, we have several other nuclear fuels we could use for energy generation; however, plutonium-238 stands out because of some special qualities it is endowed with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P-238\u00a0is safer to handle than most radioactive fuels as it emits just\u00a0alpha-particles –\u00a0not any other form of radiation. It can be conveniently\u00a0stored in a ceramic form as plutonium dioxide and can withstand high temperatures as well. Moreover, the half-life of plutonium-238 is quite ideal and it emits almost constant heat in small amounts for a very long duration. It is the best we have at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P-238 doesn’t naturally occur on the planet – we have to yield it and the production is immensely expensive – even for a budget backed by an entire nation. Plutonium obtained as spent fuel from nuclear reactors usually contains roughly 2% of plutonium-238. But even this amount is fairly pointless – owing to difficulties in isotope separation. Generally, pure plutonium-238, when needed for energy generation, is produced by irradiating neptunium-237, which we source from spent-fuel from nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n\n\n