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NNadir

(35,723 posts)
2. The Voyager Spacecraft beyond the edge of the solar system has been operating nearly 50 years on a nuclear battery.
Tue Jan 30, 2024, 11:29 PM
Jan 2024

Voyager (and many other spacecraft) operates on 238Pu, which was in pacemaker batteries back in the 1960's.

Nickel-59 is a poor choice for a radionuclide power source. It is obtained by neutron bombardment of 58Ni most likely in the presence of nickel's other four stable isotopes, meaning it requires isotopic separation to be relatively pure, either before or after bombardment. Isotopic separations are expensive and energy intensive.. (It also can be made by proton bombardment of 58Ni, via a 58Cu intermediate . Its half-life is very long 76,000 years meaning it offers low specific activity and thus low power, and decays by electron capture, meaning that its energy comes in the form gamma radiation (1073 keV) which is not easily thermalized in a small device.

Something's wrong with this picture.

A better choice, one that was first used in the 1950's, is an Sr-90 battery.

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