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Closing Bell

Manifest Space: Space Gone Nuclear with Zeno Power CEO Tyler Bernstein 2/29/24

Closing Bell

CNBC

News, Business

4.4 • 139 Ratings

🗓️ 29 February 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As commercial space makes its mark on the moon, spacecrafts’ power sources are coming under scrutiny. Solar powered spacecraft freeze upon sunset—but the problem may become obsolete in several years as more nuclear-powered alternatives come to market. Zeno Power co-founder & CEO Tyler Bernstein joins CNBC’s Morgan Brennan to discuss repurposing nuclear waste for fuel, the role of nuclear power in space and growing its client base from government agencies to the commercial sphere. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Lunar night is harsh.

0:02.0

Temperatures can fall to minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit or colder as the sun disappears for two weeks at a time.

0:10.0

Solar-powered spacecraft frees to death, which is why the reawakening of Japan's Slim Lander this week was such an extraordinary surprise.

0:18.0

And why Intuitive Machines commercial lander Odysseus is being powered down now as the sun again sets.

0:26.3

In a few years, this problem may be obsolete.

0:30.1

Xenopower has contracts with NASA to work with intuitive machines and others on lunar vehicles equipped with nuclear-powered alternatives.

0:39.0

And we have a novel design at Xeno that reduces the radiation and dose coming off of the Strontine 90 heat

0:45.8

source that we're developing that allows us to use less shielding material and have a heat

0:50.4

source that uses this available abundant waste product, but for the first time is also lightweight,

0:56.0

enabling broader usability,

0:57.5

terrestrially, but for the first time also in space.

1:00.5

And last October at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at the LE facility in central Washington,

1:05.0

we actually successfully built and demonstrated our first

1:08.0

strong Bion90 heat source confirming these innovations and building what is the world's first commercial radio isotope

1:14.4

heat source ever built and demonstrated.

1:17.1

Called radio isotope power systems, RPSs convert the heat from decaying nuclear material into electricity.

1:25.0

NASA has actually been using them for decades on big ticket space exploration programs,

1:30.0

from Apollo to Voyager to the Mars Rovers.

1:33.0

Historically, though, it's always been very costly,

1:36.4

and the regulatory hurdles high.

1:38.7

But Zeno Powers co-founder and CEO,

1:40.8

Tyler Bernstein, says his company's new product repurposes nuclear waste

...

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