Nothing current about the status but it would seem that ORNL is not producing enough.
US restarts production of plutonium-238 to power space missions
Though PU-238 is produced in nuclear reactors, extracting it requires a prohibitively expensive isotopic separation process,.....
oh yeah because all this:
".....so special production lines are needed.To remedy this, ORNL is developing a new production line under a US$15 million program. The process involves taking neptunium-237 (NP-237) feedstock from the Idaho National Laboratory, converting it to neptunium oxide, then mixing it with aluminum, and pressing it into high-density pellets. These are then bombarded with radiation in ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor to turn the NP-237 into NP-238. This, in turn, decays quickly into PU-238.
The newly made PU-238 is then dissolved, the plutonium is separated from the left-over neptunium, oxidized, and sent to the Los Alamos National Laboratory for final processing into pellets....."is gonna be so much more less expensive when split between two national labs for production line work,...
how was that again?!?!?
oh yeah morning pre-job brief, 0730 - 0930,...
work break, 0930-0950,...
pre-work preps, 0950-1100,...
lunch, 1100-1200,...
start work, 1200-1430,...
work break, 1430-1450,...
break down jobsite, doff PPE/PCE, shower, change clothes, update paperwork for end of shift, 1450-1700,...
eeeeeyup,....