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Obama and the Nuclear Rocket The Obama administration is seeking to renew the use of nuclear power in space. It is calling for revived production by the U.S. of plutonium-238 for use in space devices-despite solar energy having become a substitute for plutonium power in space. And the Obama administration appears to also want to revive the decades-old and long-discredited scheme of nuclear-powered rockets-despite strides made in new ways of propelling spacecraft. Last month, Japan launched what it called its "space yacht" which is now heading to Venus propelled by solar sails utilizing ionized particles emitted by the Sun. "Because of the frictionless environment, such a craft should be able to speed up until it is traveling many times faster than a conventional rocket-powered craft," wrote Agence France-Presse about this spacecraft launched May 21. But the Obama administration would return to using nuclear power in space-despite its enormous dangers.

Hanford workers have begun operating the nuclear reservation's evaporator to create about 900,000 gallons of additional space to hold radioactive waste in the site's sturdiest underground tanks. Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Solutions is working to empty the waste from leak-prone single shell tanks to newer double shell tanks. Space in the double-shell tanks is at a premium, but removing excess water from the waste frees up space. The double-shell tanks can hold about 28 million gallons of waste, but Hanford has 53 million gallons of waste in underground tanks waiting to be processed at the vitrification plant under construction. "Without the evaporator, we would have no storage space and without storage space, we can't retrieve waste from old single-shell tanks," said Rebecca Raven, the evaporator's operations manager for Washington River Protection Solutions, in a statement. "That's why it is so critical to upgrade and maintain the facility." This is the first evaporator run since 2007 when processing campaigns reduced waste volume by about 1.2 million gallons.

Earlier this month, a shipment off-site of seven barrels of tritium- and mercury-contaminated oil put the Savannah River Site on a fast track to remove legacy mixed waste originally scheduled for disposition in 2053. "Not only is it radioactive for its tritium content, it is hazardous for mercury, which can make treatment of this waste challenging," said Jacob Nims, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) project engineer. "We had plans to let all of it decay to be able to ship it off-site in the future." Decaying would have taken 10 to 50 years. Instead, funding from the Recovery Act accelerated the project as part of the cleanup that will reduce the footprint of the Site by 67 percent. In essence, the removal of the mixed waste frees space in N Area, allowing for the consolidation of the remaining waste from a total of 30,000 square feet of space to a smaller 3,600-square-foot facility in E Area. "The plan is to ship all we can from N Area and move only what is necessary into E Area to allow maximum space for all future generated waste," Nims said.

Earlier this month, a shipment off-site of seven barrels of tritium- and mercury-contaminated oil put the Savannah River Site on a fast track to remove legacy mixed waste originally scheduled for disposition in 2053. "Not only is it radioactive for its tritium content, it is hazardous for mercury, which can make treatment of this waste challenging," said Jacob Nims, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) project engineer. "We had plans to let all of it decay to be able to ship it off-site in the future." Decaying would have taken 10 to 50 years. Instead, funding from the Recovery Act accelerated the project as part of the cleanup that will reduce the footprint of the Site by 67 percent. In essence, the removal of the mixed waste frees space in N Area, allowing for the consolidation of the remaining waste from a total of 30,000 square feet of space to a smaller 3,600-square-foot facility in E Area. "The plan is to ship all we can from N Area and move only what is necessary into E Area to allow maximum space for all future generated waste," Nims said.

NASA is stepping up its space radiation studies with a round of experiments that for the first time in decades will use monkeys as subjects. The point of the experiments is to understand how the harsh radioactive environment of space affects human bodies and behavior and what countermeasures can be developed to make long-duration spaceflight safe for travelers beyond Earth's protective magnetic shield. For the new study, 18 to 28 squirrel monkeys will be exposed to a low dose of the type of radiation that astronauts traveling to Mars can expect to encounter.

NASA is stepping up its space radiation studies with a round of experiments that for the first time in decades will use monkeys as subjects. The point of the experiments is to understand how the harsh radioactive environment of space affects human bodies and behavior and what countermeasures can be developed to make long-duration spaceflight safe for travelers beyond Earth's protective magnetic shield. For the new study, 18 to 28 squirrel monkeys will be exposed to a low dose of the type of radiation that astronauts traveling to Mars can expect to encounter.

Fragments have broken off a Soviet-era nuclear-powered satellite but do not pose a threat to the Earth's surface or the International Space Station, a senior Russian military official said. The Cosmos-1818 military satellite, which was decommissioned shortly after its launch in 1987, shed "insignificant" fragments into space on July 4, 2008, the deputy head of Russia's Space Forces Alexander Yakushin said in a statement Wednesday.

Russia's Kurchatov Scientific Institute resumes its work to create nuclear power installations for distant interplanetary flights. It was Russia that made a breakthrough in the field of space nuclear power at the beginning of the 1980s when Russian scientists created a small-sized space installation known as Topaz. "It was much more effective than foreign analogues in terms of technical and operational characteristics. We used enriched uranium as fuel," says Mikhail Kovalchuk, the director of the Kurchatov Institute. "We are not simply competitive in the field of power installations. We are actually pioneers. Very few organizations have such technologies. Americans were really surprised to see our Topaz installations. They haven't seen anything like that before."

Three weeks into his job as head of the White House Office of Science and Technology, presidential science adviser John Holdren has laid out clear positions on myriad issues facing the Obama Administration. Speaking this morning with ScienceInsider, Holdren discussed why he thinks the United States doesn't need to design and build any new nuclear weapons. He warned of likely delays beyond 2015 in replacing the space shuttle after its 2010 retirement and the possibility that U.S. astronauts, in the interim, might arrive at the international space station aboard a Chinese vehicle. He shared his concerns that reporting requirements for spending stimulus money could shackle U.S. scientists. And he lamented the recent decision by the Texas state school board to modify science standards in ways that might undermine the teaching of evolution, warning that it was a "step backwards."

For about two weeks there have been arguments over the "suddenly revived" Soviet-made nuclear-powered satellite which had been placed into an 800 km-high orbit in 1987. The military space vehicle suddenly started losing parts, sparking fears of a possible threat. Rest assured, the Kosmos 1818 satellite is incapable of destroying the Earth. However, the question forces consideration of space security issues in general. The back story is as follows. In mid-summer last year, NORAD tracking systems spotted the first signs of the satellite's disintegration. On July 4, NASA published the information recorded. The process gained momentum, in the current state of the satellite covered in the NASA orbital debris bulletin of January 15.

Nuclear waste continues to pile up at reactors across the United States and here in South Carolina. At the Oconee Nuclear Station, the pools for spent nuclear fuel rods are full. Space can continue to be added to dry storage in Oconee, but that space is intended for less radioactive waste. Advertisement The problem in Oconee is a familiar one across the nation. More than 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel are being stored at 121 locations, mostly nuclear reactors, in 39 states.

WASHINGTON - The head of Utah-based EnergySolutions ripped open a tiny salt packet and poured it into a 2-foot-tall vase half filled with red sand. The salt, CEO Steve Creamer said, symbolizes the amount of Italian radioactive waste the company wants to store in Utah, and the leftover foot of space represents the amount of storage space remaining.

NASA is running out of the special kind of plutonium needed to power deep space probes, worrying planetary scientists who say the U. S. urgently needs to restart production of plutonium-238. But it's unclear whether Congress will provide the $30 million that the administration requested earlier this year for the Department of Energy to get a new program going. Nuclear weapons use plutonium-239, but NASA depends on something quite different: plutonium-238. A marshmallow-sized pellet of plutonium-238, encased in metal, gives off a lot of heat.

Hanford workers have evaporated enough excess water from radioactive waste in underground tanks to free up space nearly equivalent to a new tank. Washington River Protection Solutions removed 940,000 gallons of condensate from two double-shell tanks with the nuclear reservation's 242-A Evaporator in work completed last week. The Department of Energy contractor is emptying waste from leak-prone single-shell tanks into newer and sturdier double-shell tanks to be stored until the waste can be processed for disposal at the vitrification plant. Space is at a premium in the double-shell tanks. Hanford has about 53 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks, and the double-shell tanks can hold just 28 million gallons of waste.

Russia has reneged on an agreement to deliver a total of 10 kilograms of plutonium-238 to the United States in 2010 and 2011 and is insisting on a new deal for the costly material vital to NASA's deep space exploration plans. The move follows the U.S. Congress' denial of President Barack Obama's request for $30 million in 2010 to permit the Department of Energy to begin the painstaking process of restarting domestic production of plutonium-238. Bringing U.S. nuclear laboratories back on line to produce the isotope is expected to cost at least $150 million and take six years to seven years from the time funding is approved.

Russia has reneged on an agreement to deliver a total of 10 kilograms of plutonium-238 to the United States in 2010 and 2011 and is insisting on a new deal for the costly material vital to NASA's deep space exploration plans. The move follows the U.S. Congress' denial of President Barack Obama's request for $30 million in 2010 to permit the Department of Energy to begin the painstaking process of restarting domestic production of plutonium-238. Bringing U.S. nuclear laboratories back on line to produce the isotope is expected to cost at least $150 million and take six years to seven years from the time funding is approved.

NASA is testing a concept for powering future lunar and Mars bases that involve a nuclear power source the size of a trash can attached to an engine based on 19th Century technology called the Stirling Engine. The testing, using a non nuclear power source, is taking place at the Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. According to NASA, "For this particular test series, the Marshall reactor simulator was linked to a Stirling engine, developed by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The Stirling engine, named for 19th-century industrialist and inventor Robert Stirling, converts heat into electricity.

NASA is testing a concept for powering future lunar and Mars bases that involve a nuclear power source the size of a trash can attached to an engine based on 19th Century technology called the Stirling Engine. The testing, using a non nuclear power source, is taking place at the Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. According to NASA, "For this particular test series, the Marshall reactor simulator was linked to a Stirling engine, developed by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The Stirling engine, named for 19th-century industrialist and inventor Robert Stirling, converts heat into electricity.

It was a small step. But after almost a decade of deadlock, the United Nations Conference on Disarmament last week approved a working group to negotiate a treaty banning the production of fissionable material for nuclear weapons and another to discuss preventing an arms race in outer space.

Bricks and mortar and other materials that built Cold War success are now filling up Oak Ridge landfills, which is why those landfills keep getting bigger. A major expansion is under way at the Department of Energy's nuclear landfill, with similar projects getting started at a series of sanitary landfills -- which receive construction rubble and other non-radioactive wastes generated during demolition and cleanup projects. Bechtel Jacobs, DOE's cleanup manager, said a significant milestone was achieved in December when the construction team completed installation of a high-density geomembrane on Cell 5 -- a new cell that's supposed to add 465,000 cubic yards of disposal space at the landfill for low-level radioactive waste and other hazardous materials, bringing the total to 1.7 million cubic yards.

Bricks and mortar and other materials that built Cold War success are now filling up Oak Ridge landfills, which is why those landfills keep getting bigger. A major expansion is under way at the Department of Energy's nuclear landfill, with similar projects getting started at a series of sanitary landfills -- which receive construction rubble and other non-radioactive wastes generated during demolition and cleanup projects. Bechtel Jacobs, DOE's cleanup manager, said a significant milestone was achieved in December when the construction team completed installation of a high-density geomembrane on Cell 5 -- a new cell that's supposed to add 465,000 cubic yards of disposal space at the landfill for low-level radioactive waste and other hazardous materials, bringing the total to 1.7 million cubic yards.

France's nuclear safety authority has suspended work at a nuclear fuel plant after discovering it had underestimated plutonium levels. The ASN safety agency says the plant in Cadarache failed to notice and then waited months to report several extra kilograms of plutonium in closed spaces used to manipulate radioactive material. The ASN said in a statement Wednesday "the incident had no consequences." But it issued a warning to plant operators and suspended work on dismantling the plant. The plant, which manufactured fuel for nuclear plants for 40 years, is being decommissioned. It was operated by French nuclear manufacturer Areva and belongs to the state Atomic Energy Commission, which reported the excess plutonium on Oct. 6.

France's nuclear safety authority has suspended work at a nuclear fuel plant after discovering it had underestimated plutonium levels. The ASN safety agency says the plant in Cadarache failed to notice and then waited months to report several extra kilograms of plutonium in closed spaces used to manipulate radioactive material. The ASN said in a statement Wednesday "the incident had no consequences." But it issued a warning to plant operators and suspended work on dismantling the plant. The plant, which manufactured fuel for nuclear plants for 40 years, is being decommissioned. It was operated by French nuclear manufacturer Areva and belongs to the state Atomic Energy Commission, which reported the excess plutonium on Oct. 6.

An artist's design for a new community park in Tallevast depicts an idyllic green space where children can shoot hoops and play baseball, and families can picnic by a small lake. Contamination may be too close for comfort at the site The plan, however, does not show that the park will sit atop groundwater polluted with chemicals known to increase the likelihood of kidney and liver cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. Lockheed Martin officials say the park can be built before the cleanup of 200 acres of polluted groundwater traced to a former weapons plant on Tallevast Road.

An artist's design for a new community park in Tallevast depicts an idyllic green space where children can shoot hoops and play baseball, and families can picnic by a small lake. Contamination may be too close for comfort at the site The plan, however, does not show that the park will sit atop groundwater polluted with chemicals known to increase the likelihood of kidney and liver cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. Lockheed Martin officials say the park can be built before the cleanup of 200 acres of polluted groundwater traced to a former weapons plant on Tallevast Road.

Taiwan wants to extend the life of its oldest nuclear power plant for another 20 years, the government said Tuesday, triggering alarm among activists who fear it could put public safety at risk. State-owned Taiwan Power Company has asked to keep using the Chinshan plant, operational since 1978 in a coastal area of north Taiwan, after the licenses of its two reactors expire in 2018 and 2019, the Atomic Energy Council said. "The application is for extending the life of the plant's two generators from 40 to 60 years," the cabinet-level council said in a statement. Conservation activists Tuesday voiced severe concerns about what they called a risky plan, also citing a shortage of space to store the nuclear waste. "We strongly oppose the measure... We cannot afford taking such as risk," Gloria Hsu, a National Taiwan University professor, told AFP.

Taiwan wants to extend the life of its oldest nuclear power plant for another 20 years, the government said Tuesday, triggering alarm among activists who fear it could put public safety at risk. State-owned Taiwan Power Company has asked to keep using the Chinshan plant, operational since 1978 in a coastal area of north Taiwan, after the licenses of its two reactors expire in 2018 and 2019, the Atomic Energy Council said. "The application is for extending the life of the plant's two generators from 40 to 60 years," the cabinet-level council said in a statement. Conservation activists Tuesday voiced severe concerns about what they called a risky plan, also citing a shortage of space to store the nuclear waste. "We strongly oppose the measure... We cannot afford taking such as risk," Gloria Hsu, a National Taiwan University professor, told AFP.