In The News
The New York Times reported in 2005 that a reactor at INL would be used to manufacture plutonium-238, most of it for classified national security purposes. This isotope is known for its intense alpha decay, which is useful in making extremely long-lived power sources such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG)s for deep space probes and heart pacemaker batteries. INL has 52 reactors, three of which are reportedly still operating (see list of nuclear reactors). The Idaho State Journal reported that the batteries would be used for a voyage to Jupiter's moons and the New Horizons trip to Pluto.
Read more about this topic: Idaho National Laboratory
Famous quotes containing the word news:
“Reporters are not paid to operate in retrospect. Because when news begins to solidify into current events and finally harden into history, it is the stories we didn’t write, the questions we didn’t ask that prove far, far more damaging than the ones we did.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)