Ambient office  =  115 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Bartlett pear from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  =  100 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 78 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 100 nanosieverts per hour

        Americium is a highly radioactive element that does not occur in nature. It is produced when plutonium decays. Plutonium is produced in nuclear reactors. Researchers at the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and University of Leicester in the U.K. are exploring the possibility of using americium to produce electricity. They have extracted americium from some of the U.K.’s stockpile of plutonium and used the heat from the americium to produce enough electricity to light a small bulb.
        Space batteries are used in space probes when the probe has flown so far from the sun that solar panels can no longer produce the power needed. Americium is being considered for use in space batteries.
        Chris Skidmore is the Science Minister for the U.K. He said, “This remarkable breakthrough sounds like something from a science fiction film but it is another brilliant testament to our world leading scientific and university communities and their commitment to keeping the UK at the very frontier of developments in space technology and research for energy requirements in difficult environments. It is on the foundations of such discoveries that we can create the highly skilled jobs of the future, supported through our modern Industrial Strategy and record level of government investment in R&D.”
       The research program into applications of americium has been going on for several years. Funding has been provided by the European Space Agency (ESA). European Thermodynamics Ltd helped develop the thermoelectric generator used in the experiments. The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority provided the plutonium to the researchers.
         Richard Ambrosi is a professor of Space Instrumentation and Space Nuclear Power Systems at the University of Leicester. He said, “In order to push forward the boundaries of space exploration, innovations in power generation, robotics, autonomous vehicles and advanced instrumentation are needed. Radioisotope power sources are an important technology for future European space exploration missions as their use would result in more capable spacecraft, and probes that can access distant, cold, dark and inhospitable environments. This is an important step in achieving these goals.”
      Tim Tinsley is the NNL’s account director for this research program. He said, “Seeing this lightbulb lit is the culmination of a huge amount of specialist technical work carried out by the teams from NNL and Leicester, working in collaboration with other organizations such as ESA and UK Space Agency. Leicester University’s capability in development of the radioisotope power systems was complimented by NNL’s expertise in handling and processing americium in our unique lab facilities. It is great to think that americium can be used in this way, recycling something that is a waste from one industry into a significant asset in another. You need access to americium, which is not easy. Current technology uses Pu238 instead which is very hard and very expensive to produce.”
       Space agencies other than the ESA have expressed an interest in americium as a power source. The researchers hope to have a working model in the next decade for use in a lunar mission. Americium is also being considered for power generation on Earth where it could be used to generate power for hundreds of years without the need for refueling.
        Adrian Bull is a NNL spokesperson. He said, “Some current probes use an isotope of plutonium for this purpose – but that’s in increasingly short supply. This route of using Americium takes something that’s generally regarded as a problem and turns it into an asset. Our work is funded by the European Space Agency and they are interested to use the americium approach for future European space missions.”
       Tinsley says, “We ‘clean’ the americium from it, which would have been a waste. With sufficient applications, all of the UK plutonium could be ‘cleaned’ of the americium. The returned plutonium is in a better condition, ready for further storage or reuse as nuclear fuel.”
     Bull says, “The americium in plutonium is potentially a problem for re-using the plutonium as new fuel. In extracting the americium from aged plutonium stocks, we end up with both the separated americium and also ‘cleaner’ plutonium – for potential re-use in the fuel cycle. So it’s a win-win.”
    Keith Stephenson is the program lead from the ESA for the research program. He says that americium batteries have a huge energy density that will permit space missions that would have been impossible otherwise. He also said, “This successful collaboration between the nuclear and space sectors has created a brand-new capability for Europe and opens the door to a future of ambitious and exciting exploration of our solar system.”

Ambient office  =  119 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 122 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 125 nanosieverts per hour

Pineapple from Central Market = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
       Vergazov was asked about whether vibropacked MOX is seen as the best way forward, or whether future production is likely to be conventional sintered MOX. Vergazov said: “We’re taking both approaches and are not limiting ourselves to just one.” He added: “Although there are certain difficulties with vibropacked fuel, during fabrication, we still think this direction is a prominent one. This type of fabrication is technologically more complex than classical ceramic fuel pellets made from uranium dioxide. If we’re talking about the so called MNUP fuel – mixed nitride uranium-plutonium fuel – then this involves nitrate technology. We’ve fabricated a number of such fuel samples that are currently loaded in the BN-600 fast reactor, and we’ve also completed a feasibility study into the safety and reliability of the reactor core exploitation.”
      TVEL is working on four different options for ATF at the same time. The MIR reactor in Dimitrovgrad is being used to irradiate all four of the options. There are two different choices for cladding the fuel rods being explored. One applies a coating over the zirconium cladding and the other uses a non-zirconium cladding. There are two options for the fuel matrix. One of them utilizes the traditional uranium oxide matrix and the other employs a uranium and molybdenum alloy. A uranium and silicon alloy is also being considered. Each fuel assembly consists of twenty-four fuel rods, each of which contains a different combination of materials. The fuel assemblies are being tested in the MIR reactor under conditions as close to operational as possible.
       Vergazov said, “In January, we loaded the first experimental fuel cycles into the reactor. One fuel assembly is for a classical VVER reactor, another is for a PWR reactor. Each fuel assembly has fuel rods with four different combinations of the cladding materials and fuel matrix materials and that’s why we say that all four options are being irradiated now. We’re testing them simultaneously using different water loops.”
       TVEL has been working on a “fourth-generation” fuel line called TVS-4 for use in VVER-1000 reactors. These new fuel assemblies have increased capacity and more advanced design. TVEL says that they should improve economic performance of nuclear power plants while, at the same time, providing the same level of safety. They are hoping for a reduction of two to four percent for the cost of electricity.
       These new fuel assemblies are being used to fuel existing VVER power reactors outside of Russia. TVEL is also getting ready to introduce fuel assemblies that have an enrichment level above five percent. (The current enrichment level of fuels for these reactors is four and eighty-five one hundredths percent.) Reactors utilizing these new fuel assemblies will only have to be shut down and refueled once every two years instead of eighteen months as is now the case.
       Russia is hoping to create nuclear fuel from recycled spent nuclear fuel and also to breed fuel in their fast neutron reactors. Ultimately, they hope to close the fuel cycle by eliminating the need to mine uranium and eliminating the waste produced in conventional reactors. If other nations decide to rely heavily on nuclear power in the future, Russia will have a preeminent position in the global reactor and nuclear fuel market.

Ambient office  =  125 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 06 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 74 nanosieverts per hour