Orano to supply Zeno with Am-241 to power space missions
Zeno Power, a developer of nuclear batteries, is to receive americium-241 recovered from Orano’s La Hague nuclear fuel recycling site in Normandy, France, under a strategic agreement announced by the companies on September 24.
Under the agreement, Zeno will make a multimillion-dollar investment to obtain priority access to large quantities of Am-241 per year from Orano. The long-lived isotope will be used to fuel a radioisotope power system (RPS) Zeno is developing for NASA for use in space applications.
Since 2022, Zeno and Orano have explored the industrial production of Am-241 powder at the La Hague site, commissioning a feasibility study to evaluate technical, economic, and logistical pathways.
Space applications: In July 2023, Zeno was selected by NASA to receive $15 million to develop a universal Am-241 RPS as part of NASA’s Harmonia-RPS Tipping Point project. That project, part of NASA’s Artemis mission to return humans to the moon, seeks to develop a Stirling converter RPS design capable of providing heat and power for long-duration lunar missions.
The americium-fueled RPS Zeno is developing for NASA could be used to power lunar rovers, landers, and infrastructure on the moon. According to Zeno, Am-241 offers a sustainable supplement to plutonium-238, which has historically been used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, expanding the fuel options for long-duration space nuclear power.
Am-241 is an attractive fuel source for space power because of its long half-life of more than 430 years, enabling systems to last for decades. It is also naturally produced through the decay of other isotopes found in used nuclear fuel.
Other applications: According to Zeno, its agreement with Orano advances the company’s broader strategy to build a robust nuclear fuel supply chain. In addition to its space RPS, Zeno is developing strontium-fueled nuclear batteries for maritime applications under a Department of Defense contract.
Through a partnership with the Department of Energy, Zeno has received Sr-90 recovered from a legacy RPS, known as the BUP-500, that was previously held in storage at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Under a memorandum of understanding signed in June 2024, Zeno is also working with Wisconsin-based fusion technology company Shine Technologies to secure a future supply of Sr-90.
“By pairing americium-241 for space missions with strontium-90 for maritime and terrestrial deployments, Zeno’s nuclear batteries will unlock operations in the frontier, from deep sea to deep space,” said Zeno Power cofounder and CEO Tyler Bernstein.
Additional comments: “With Orano’s world-class operational recycling expertise, we can now harness americium-241 as a new fuel source for the burgeoning demand for nuclear power,” said Harsh Desai, chief commercialization officer at Zeno Power. “We are proud to partner with Orano to establish a commercial supply chain for Am-241, transforming recycled material into reliable power for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”
“Americium-241 represents a powerful opportunity to demonstrate the real-world value of used nuclear fuel recycling,” said Jean-Luc Palayer, CEO of Orano USA. “Our collaboration with Zeno shows how industrial-scale recovery of valuable isotopes can create entirely new markets and enable innovative ideas to become reality. As we like to say: It’s only waste if you waste it.”
