No Russian Plutonium for NASA

Russia won’t supply any non-weapon-grade plutonium-238 for power sources of NASA’s space ships, 5 kilos of which were expected to arrive to the US in 2010. Order for the same amount of plutonium for 2011 also won’t be fulfilled. Russia and NASA are working on new conditions for signing a plutonium contract. If Russia won’t supply any plutonium after 2011, then the United States would have to reconsider launch programme for automatic space stations, NASA officials say. NASA recently announced its need for 30 kg of plutonium for three orbital missions, scheduled to start for 2020. USA doesn’t produce this element since late eighties of the previous century, preferring to use Russian plutonium, which is known to be of better quality.