For all the debate surrounding U.S. President Barack Obama’s recently released NASA budget request, the president got at least one thing unquestionably right. For the second year in a row, the Obama administration is asking Congress for at least $30 million to begin a multiyear effort to restart domestic production of plutonium-238, the essential ingredient in long-lasting spacecraft batteries crucial for sending landers and probes to sunlight-deprived corners of the solar system.
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