INL Opens First New Radiation Hot Cell Lab in 50 Years

They've raised $60 million to deploy long-duration power-dense nuclear batteries into deep-ocean sensors, the dark side of the moon, and outer system exploration

Drastically expanding the performance envelope of remote autonomous systems in civilian and defense markets

Re-purposing an existing licensed nuclear facility takes years off the development and deployment cycle required to develop next-generation long-duration energy sources to explore and settle the high beyond

In Earth Orbit, then the Moon, Mars, Asteroid Belt and outer system

All this to say - high radiation hot cell facilities let you develop nuclear batteries that can output power steadily over decades, with hundreds to thousands of times the energy density in J/kg of a Li-Ion battery

These are an evolution of the RTG NASA uses for Deep Space

Since the 1970s NASA has launched 45 Radioisotope Thermelectric Generators (RTGs) on deep space missions like Cassini, Voyager, New Horizons, and long-duration rovers on Mars like Curiosity

Nuclear Batteries are currently the only viable power source for these mission profiles

Earlier this year @zeno_power announced they've completed the design review for their nuclear battery for the Artemis program, enabling long-duration energy on the moon

What's more, they've improved on the RTG design by using a Stirling generator - getting 15-20% more power

@Andercot The actual design could be ciggarette was wrapped in Xhale Straw that directly into mouth and when smoker exhale it channel through outer diameter of ciggarette that contain filter but inside Xhale Straw. The results is no smoke leaked to atmosphere