Framatome and Perpetual Atomics ink deal to push new frontiers in deep space exploration
March 20, 2025
Framatome, a leader in nuclear energy, and Leicester University spinout, Perpetual Atomics have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to study the industrialisation of processing americium into sealed sources for radioisotope power systems (space batteries). The signing took place at Farnborough International Space Show on Thursday 20 March.
Space batteries, or radioisotope power systems harness the decay of radioisotopes to generate heat, which can be used as a heat source or converted into electricity. With a half-life spanning approximately 430 years, Americium-241 is particularly well-suited for long-duration space missions, according to Framatome. Its collaboration with Perpetual Atomics will enable the company to scale up the production and manufacturing of the power systems to support future space exploration efforts. Framatome is supporting the UK and European Space Agency’s lunar and Mars mission programmes planned later this decade.
“This partnership forges Perpetual Atomics’ cutting-edge technology in radioisotope nuclear power systems with Framatome’s global nuclear pedigree in production-scale industrialisation,” said Dr. Kason Bala, CCO, UK Defence and Space at Framatome. The partnership also brings together Framatome’s manufacturing expertise and regulatory compliance experience in the nuclear sector with Perpetual Atomics’ two decades of development in radioisotope power systems led by the Space Nuclear Power group at Leicester University.
Professor Richard Ambrosi, chief scientific officer, founder and director of Perpetual Atomics added, “The UK and Europe host a large inventory of americium, and this combined with the technology maturity, know-how, and industrial capability to scale production and manufacturing establishes an important foundation for the UK and European Space Agency (ESA) programmes. Perpetual Atomics looks forward to working closely with Framatome to develop industrialisation solutions for radioisotope power systems at scale.”
