Early on Monday morning (1:31AM Eastern Daylight Time), after having traveled 352 million miles, NASA's robotic rover Curiosity is scheduled to touch down inside the Gale Crater on the surface of Mars. Soon after, it will begin looking for clues about possible early forms of Martian life.
Argonne to investigate Pu chemistry to aid Hanford cleanup
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are investigating the details of plutonium chemistry with the goal of aiding the cleanup of the Hanford Site in...
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket...
How can the nuclear community support space applications?
The most important thing the nuclear community can do to support space nuclear applications is the same thing we must focus on for terrestrial nuclear science: developing the trust of the...
Radiant horizons: Fission surface power on the moon, Mars, and beyond
Imagine what our world would be like today without the benefits of electric energy. Think of the inventions and technologies that never would have been. Think of a world without power grids...
The SNAP-10A reactor power system
Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) was an Atomic Energy Commission program with the goal of producing a portable and dependable power source centered around nuclear technology that...
Nations envision nuclear reactors on the moon
Russian space agency Roscosmos has announced its intention to build a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface in collaboration with the China National Space Administration. According to Roscosmos...
Clementine—The world’s first fast neutron reactor
In March 1949—75 years ago this month—the 25-kilowatt reactor known as Clementine reached full power. As an experimental reactor, it had a rather long and successful run. It was the...
The IAEA celebrates International Women's Day
March 8 is International Women’s Day, and this year the International Atomic Energy Agency is marking the occasion by bringing more than 400 women together for a two-day event on March 7 and...
Japanese gangster charged with trafficking nuclear materials
U.S. officials have brought charges of nuclear materials trafficking against a Japanese gangster who has been in federal custody since 2022.In a case filled with international espionage, along...
Another calendar year has passed. Before heading too far into 2024, let’s look back at what happened in 2023 in the nuclear community. In today's post, compiled from Nuclear News and Nuclear...
