Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to support the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory in expanding the development of americium so it could be used by the space industry.

The Department is supporting the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL)’s work to extract americium from the UK’s civil separated plutonium inventory at Sellafield for the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) ENDURE Programme. This includes supporting UKNNL and the UK Space Agency in the development of a new facility which aims to upscale americium extraction to meet future ESA demand.