NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is loaded with technology developed by the Department of Energy, including a nuclear battery fueled by plutonium-238. Listen as we follow the rover’s power source on its 7-year, 5,000-mile journey from lab to launch pad.

Mars 2020, Part 1: Powered by Plutonium

Direct Current is a podcast about energy -- the kind that lights our homes, powers our lives and shapes our world. From the U.S. Department of Energy's digital team in Washington, D.C., Direct Current brings you fresh, insightful stories of how we generate and use electricity, what that means for the planet, and the cutting-edge science that's driving a global energy revolution.

Science

Government

Join us for an energizing conversation with Secretary Jennifer Granholm, focused on the Department of Energy’s 2023 accomplishments and the progress of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. From shaping the future of transportation to creating thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs. With historic investments in our electric grid to deliver reliable, affordable, clean power to all Americans, including in rural and underserved communities. DOE is focused on a just clean energy economy, ensuring that this historic transition lifts up the most vulnerable among us. Find out how the Investing in America agenda is helping everyday Americans and more on this episode of Direct Current.

S4 E5: End of Year Chat with Secretary Jennifer Granholm

70 years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower went before the United Nations and delivered a speech unlike anything the world had ever heard. The president spoke in sweeping terms about the terrible destructive power of new atomic weapons. But he also had a message for the assembly, one with a more optimistic tone: Join us in harnessing the power of the atom for good — not evil. From the dawn of the atomic age, nuclear power branched into two distinct paths: nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons. A chain reaction of historical events would lead down one path to the creation and eventual detonation of the world’s first atomic weapons in 1945. Down the other path, work forged ahead on peaceful uses of nuclear power. Join us on a trip through nuclear history, from "Atoms for Peace" to today.

S4 E4: 70 Years of Atoms for Peace

The first of two episodes, we’re going under the hood to take a look at something these EVs all share in common — a battery. Where do they come from? How do they work? And how the U.S. is working to meet the demand for millions of batteries for EVs, grid storage, and more.

S4 E3: Fully Charged: How Batteries Are Combating the Climate Crisis, Part 1

The conclusion of our two part story on the Manhattan Project. We take you to the Trinity site where the first bomb was tested and then follow the Airmen as they drop the first ever atomic bombs. Later, learn about the creation of the Department of Energy and how, along with the National Park Service, we're preserving the origins of nuclear power and weaponry.

The Manhattan Project, Part 2 (REBROADCAST)

The first of two episodes that tell the story of an unprecedented, U.S. government effort to beat Nazi Germany in the race to construct a nuclear weapon, the dawn of the atomic age, and how that legacy is being preserved.

Mars 2020, Part 1: Powered by Plutonium

Download our free app to listen on your phone