TRI-CITIES, Wash. – Nuclear energy is nowhere near new, but new ways of using it are constantly being developed. One company is suggesting they are going to change the way space and deep-sea missions are powered after the successful demonstration of its radioisotope power system heat source.
The heat source is just one part of the power system that company Zeno is planning to start fabricating throughout 2024 and selling in 2025 according to Tyler Bernstein, CEO and Co-founder of Zeno.“In bringing us towards this broader goal to take what is this waste material in strontium 90 – a liability and re-purposing it into a lightweight form factor to build small scale nuclear power systems,” he said.Zeno developed the technology with the help of labs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.While RPS systems aren’t new Zeno has been able to make the energy process more efficient according to the press release.Bernstein said the final system will convert heat created by the radioisotopes into energy based on a difference in temperature.In most cases, the power system would be about the size of a microwave that can generate power for about ten years, but could potentially be scaled up based on need according to Bernstein.The size could make it a good fit in things like lunar landers, unmanned submarines, and even small satellites according to Bernstein.While he was unable to say at the time writing where the systems would be manufactured he did say the company plans to involve the Tri-cities.“Longer term our hope is and vision really is to make the Tri-Cities one of the homes of Zeno both because of the fuel that is at the Hanford site and because of the amazing community at PNNL,” he said
