Recycled Nuclear Waste Will Power Space Batteries for NASA's Lunar and Landing Vehicles

Recycled Nuclear Waste Will Power Space Batteries for NASA’s Lunar and Landing Vehicles

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 26/09/2025 at 15:08

Updated on 27/09/2025 at 19:49

Resíduos nucleares reciclados alimentam baterias espaciais: amerício-241 com meia-vida de 430 anos impulsionará veículos lunares e pousadores da NASA

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Recycled Americium-241 Ensures Long-Lasting Power for NASA’s Nuclear Batteries, Enabling Lunar Vehicles, Landers, and Infrastructure in the Artemis Program

Nuclear power is advancing as a solution to ensure long-duration space exploration. A U.S. company is about to use recycled nuclear waste to manufacture batteries capable of powering lunar vehicles and landers for NASA.

Zeno Power, based in Washington, is developing radioisotope power systems (RPS) that use americium-241 (Am-241), a long-lived isotope particularly well-suited for space.

Nuclear Power for the Artemis Program

The batteries from Zeno will provide reliable power to survive the lunar night and operate in permanently shadowed regions.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Strategic Partnership with Orano

To ensure a continuous supply of Am-241, Zeno Power has entered into a strategic agreement with Orano, a company globally recognized for the production and management of nuclear fuel cycle materials. The contract includes a multimillion-dollar investment from Zeno to gain priority access to large quantities of the isotope produced at Orano’s recycling facility in La Hague, Normandy, France.

The partnership secures a reliable and diversified supply chain. With this, Orano will utilize its expertise in recycling used nuclear fuel to recover americium-241, turning a previously discarded waste into valuable fuel for space missions.

Differentials of Americium-241

Am-241 has a half-life of over 430 years, making it ideal for systems that need to operate for decades.

It naturally forms from the decay of other isotopes present in already used nuclear fuels. This characteristic allows Orano to position itself as a global leader in the production of the material, leveraging existing recycling infrastructure.

According to Zeno, this approach enhances battery durability and offers greater autonomy for exploration missions. Tyler Bernstein, co-founder and CEO of the company, emphasized that Zeno’s multifuel strategy combines americium-241 for space missions and strontium-90 for maritime and terrestrial deployments. This diversification aims to unlock operations both in deep seas and deep space.

Value Added by Nuclear Recycling

The use of americium also underscores the importance of recycling in the nuclear sector. Corinne Spilios, Executive Vice President of Orano’s Recycling Business Unit, stated that working with Zeno demonstrates how it is possible to add value to materials previously considered waste. According to her, recovering Am-241 shows the potential to transform waste into strategic resources, enabling advanced applications such as space power systems.

This agreement represents, therefore, a paradigm shift: nuclear waste is now viewed as valuable sources for long-term missions in space, ensuring constant power in conditions where other technologies cannot operate.

Recycled Nuclear Waste Will Power Space Batteries for NASA’s Lunar and Landing Vehicles

Recycled Americium-241 Ensures Long-Lasting Power for NASA’s Nuclear Batteries, Enabling Lunar Vehicles, Landers, and Infrastructure in the Artemis Program

Nuclear Power for the Artemis Program

Strategic Partnership with Orano

Differentials of Americium-241

Value Added by Nuclear Recycling

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Recycled Nuclear Waste Will Power Space Batteries for NASA’s Lunar and Landing Vehicles

Recycled Americium-241 Ensures Long-Lasting Power for NASA’s Nuclear Batteries, Enabling Lunar Vehicles, Landers, and Infrastructure in the Artemis Program

Nuclear Power for the Artemis Program

Strategic Partnership with Orano

Differentials of Americium-241

Value Added by Nuclear Recycling

A giant printer called the “Ferrari” of concrete has landed in Latin America and can already build a 120-square-meter house in just 48 hours, making the traditional construction site look like something from the last century.

Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has ceased to be a climatic phenomenon and has become a biological system that feeds on itself, with 8,000 kilometers in length, 37 million tons of algae, and scientists confirm that it is now permanent.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Engineers had to pour concrete mixed with tons of ice throughout entire nights in the Dubai desert to erect the Burj Khalifa; any carelessness could clog the pipes half a mile high.

The James Webb telescope spotted a planet 700 light-years from Earth with mornings full of sand clouds and nights with clear skies, the temperature difference between the two hemispheres reaches an impressive 170 degrees.

Air bubbles from 3 million years ago extracted from Antarctic ice reveal that the current level of CO₂ has already surpassed that of the ancient, warm world, when the sea was up to 20 meters higher and there were no factories or cars burning fuel.

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