Zeno Power Systems announced it is working with the U.S. Department of Energy to recycle decades-old radioactive material to produce radioisotope power sources.
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Under the agreement with DOE, Zeno will have access to a large supply of strontium-90, a radioisotope created as a byproduct in nuclear fission reactors.
The company will use the material to build radioisotope power sources, or RPS systems.
These are compact devices that convert heat from isotopes into electricity.
NASA for decades has used RPS systems for deep-space missions, but these systems are fueled by plutonium-238, an isotope that is in limited supply. Zeno designed an RPS system for small satellites fueled by strontium-90.
The company, based in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., has several contracts to develop radioisotope-powered satellites for national security and space exploration missions, as well as underwater systems for the U.S. Navy.
Chief executive Tyler Bernstein, who co-founded Zeno in 2018, said the company is on track to deliver its first RPS-powered satellite to the U.S. Air Force by 2026.
DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, known as OREM, is working with Zeno to recycle large quantities of strontium-90 from a radioisotope thermoelectric generator built in the mid-1980s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, but never deployed. Before DOE agreed to hand it over to Zeno, the generator was expected to remain in storage for another 30 years before OREM could dispose of it.
OREM is responsible for removing radioactive materials resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, and East Tennessee Technology Park.
OREM’s cleanup contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge transported the radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing strontium-90 to a commercial nuclear facility at an undisclosed location in the Northeast, where Zeno will recycle the material to power its RPS. ■