Plutonium-238 for Space Exploration

Space voyages were among the most inspiring and iconic endeavors of the 20th century, but practical realities limited spacefaring ambitions because providing electricity and heat to a spacecraft in flight was challenging across the vast distances and intense cold of space. Beginning in 1960, the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, helped meet this challenge by making plutonium-238 to fuel radioisotope thermoelectric generators aboard spacecraft. These nuclear batteries powered and warmed the spacecraft and the research instruments they carried, enabling exploration of deep space. The Savannah River Site produced nearly all the plutonium-238 for every mission that relied on these batteries, and together these technologies represented a peaceful application of radioactive materials.

Aiken, South Carolina · United States