Nuclear Batteries

Subject: Science & Tech

Section: Nuclear energy

Context- From fuel to outer space power plants, the world is developing different usages of nuclear energy to explore the deep space.

Concept-

About Nuclear Batteries:

A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.
This type of generator has no moving parts.
RTGs have been used as power sources in satellites, space probes, and uncrewed remote facilities such as a series of lighthouses built by the Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle.
RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for unmaintained situations that need a few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel cells, batteries, or generators to provide economically, and in places where solar cells are not practical.
In 2021, NASA invited proposals from industries to design nuclear power systems for lunar applications.
- By 2030, the space agency plans to set up a plant that will continuously provide 10 kilowatts (kW) of power—the average annual power intake of a home on Earth.
Now China is hoping to do one better.
In 2021, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) took its first step by inviting companies to develop a 100-watt RTG.
- India till now relied only on solar power for its outer space missions.

Nuclear Fuel as Rocket propellants:

Countries are also trying to develop spaceships that will use nuclear energy as fuel.
In the meantime, kerosene, alcohol, hydrazine and its derivatives, and liquid hydrogen grew popular as rocket fuel or propellants.
Nuclear propellants are twice as efficient as their chemical counterparts.
Their energy density, or the amount of energy they can produce, is 4 million times higher than hydrazine, the most commonly used chemical fuel for outer space missions.
They are also faster: a round-trip mission to Mars could take more than three years through conventional means. Nuclear propellants might be able to accomplish this in about two years.