Plutonium-239 (Pu-239) is a nuclear fuel source that should play an important role in a sustainable, rapidly growing nuclear power enterprise. It is a natural byproduct that is created inside every fission reactor using uranium fuel. It is fissile with characteristics that are similar to U-235, the fissile material that provides most of today’s nuclear…
Non-attendees might dismiss it a just another nuclear industry conference full of talk signifying nothing, but the 2023 edition of the Advanced Reactor Summit (AR Summit) – hosted by the US Nuclear Industry Council in Charlotte, NC from Jun 20-21 – felt very different to me. This year, the US NIC AR Summit marked its…
In the past few years, there has been a strong revival of interest in using nuclear fission energy to power space travel and planetary exploration. There have also been new developments in radioisotope thermal generators that will make them more widely available with greater energy density. Though there has been interest in using nuclear energy…