US now making its own plutonium for space probes

The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has produced the first batch of US manufactured non-weapons grade plutonium in 25 years after traditionally purchasing the deadly material from Russia. NASA will use the plutonium to power space probes, a practice that began in the 1970s, prompting continued alarm. Beyond Nuclear's Karl Grossman described the use of plutonium powered space probes as both dangerous and unnecessary in a 1996 article, pointing out that if something went wrong, "the space probe could break up in the Earth's atmosphere, raining plutonium back down on the Earth's surface." Quoting NASA's own Final Environmental Impact Statement for the then Cassini Mission, he quoted the agency acknowledging that, if that were to happen, "Approximately 5 billion of the estimated 7 billion to 8 billion population ... could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure."

Instead of using plutonium, the European Space Agency had already recommended, in 1994, new, high-performance silicon solar cells for use in future demanding deep-space missions. In July 2011, Grossman wrote on the subject again, pointing out that NASA intends to send a solar-powered probe beyond Mars to Jupiter.

Clearly, other motives are at work in manufacturing new plutonium. Ironically, Oak Ridge was the site of a protest on July 28, 2012, when three pacifists, including Michael Walli, 82-year old nun, Sister Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed (pictured left to right) breached security at the facililty, unimpeted by barbed wire, armed guards and video cameras and splashed blood on the Highly Enriched Uranium Facility and hung banners on its walls. Their trial is set for May 7th in Knoxville. Although forced to demonstrate in a different area of the site, protesters continue to rally at Oak Ridge in opposition to a proposed new Uranium Processing Facility at the notorious Y-12 National Security Complex. A recent protest is pictured below.