Jordan and Birden worked on an Army Signal Corps contract (R-65-8- 998 11-SC-03-91) beginning on 1 January 1957, to conduct research on radioactive materials and thermocouples suitable for the direct conversion of heat to electrical energy using polonium-210 as the heat source. They were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2013. The RTG was invented in 1954 by Mound Laboratories scientists Kenneth (Ken) C. The pellet is glowing red hot because of the heat generated by radioactive decay (primarily α). This photo was taken after insulating the pellet under a graphite blanket for several minutes and then removing the blanket.

Because they don't need solar energy, RTGs are ideal for remote and harsh environments for extended periods of time, and because they have no moving parts, there is no risk of parts wearing out or malfunctioning.Ī pellet of 238PuO 2 as used in the RTG for the Cassini and Galileo missions. The expense of RTGs tends to limit their use to niche applications in rare or special situations. Safe use of RTGs requires containment of the radioisotopes long after the productive life of the unit. RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for unmaintained situations that need a few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel cells, batteries, or generators to provide economically, and in places where solar cells are not practical.

RTGs have been used as power sources in satellites, space probes, and uncrewed remote facilities such as a series of lighthouses built by the Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle. This type of generator has no moving parts. Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probeĪ radioisotope thermoelectric generator ( RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.

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