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Perpetual Atomics, QSA Global produce Am fuel for nuclear space power
U.K.-based Perpetual Atomics and U.S.-based QSA Global claim to have achieved a major step forward in processing americium dioxide to fuel radioisotope power systems used in space missions. Using an industrially scalable process, the companies said they have turned americium into stable, large-scale ceramic pellets that can be directly integrated into sealed sources for radioisotope power systems, including radioisotope heater units (RHUs) and radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs).
V. Spiegel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 53 | Number 3 | March 1974 | Pages 326-327
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE74-A23358
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effective half-life of 252Cf has been determined as 2.638 ± 0.007 yr. The method utilized the ratio of the manganese activity induced in a manganous-sulfate bath by a 252Cf spontaneous-fission neutron source and the National Bureau of Standards photo-neutron source to measure the change in emission rate of the 252Cf source over a period of 1.77 half-lives. The data were corrected for the activity of radium (1622-yr half-life) in the photoneutron source (-0.2%) and for the competing neutron production from 250Cf.
