5 ms·

True, you don't really want that stuff to fall into the wrong hands. NASA seem to like RTG's though and used them for New Horizons and a few others. Apparently

by WhoBeI 10y ago

True, you don't really want that stuff to fall into the wrong hands. NASA seem to like RTG's though and used them for New Horizons and a few others. Apparently they share since it's used in Cassini as well.

calgoo 10y ago
There is not enough light to power probes after a certain distance. That's why they have to use the RTG's in mission like New Horizons. There was also a shortage of the Radioactive material to make the RTGs, but that seams to be solved with NASA producing its own material.
- Alupis 10y ago
  > There was also a shortage of the Radioactive material to make the RTGs From my understanding, this shortage is caused by the lack of nuclear power facilities in the USA - which supports the GGP's point about negative political/public reactions to anything nuclear.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    We have a lot of nuclear power plants. There hasn't been much new construction, but there hasn't been much decommissioning either. It makes up about 20% of our total electrical generating capacity. The problem is that turning nuclear reactors into Pu238 requires a lot of extra work and equipment. They produce small amounts, but separating it out is tough. You can make more by irradiating other waste products, but that's not easy either. Apparently some stuff used for making nuclear weapons can be used for this purpose (note that nuclear weapons use Pu239, not 238) and the shortage happened because those facilities were closed.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    France has over 80% nuclear - there's no shortage of that in the EU. But actively seperating out the required materials is the same processing step as is required for building nuclear weapons, and that's something that's a political problem, and will cost you a lot of money to prove and inspect everything every few days to ensure it's only used for civil uses.

5 ms·

True, you don't really want that stuff to fall into the wrong hands. NASA seem to like RTG's though and used them for New Horizons and a few others. Apparently

by WhoBeI 10y ago

calgoo 10y ago
There is not enough light to power probes after a certain distance. That's why they have to use the RTG's in mission like New Horizons. There was also a shortage of the Radioactive material to make the RTGs, but that seams to be solved with NASA producing its own material.
- Alupis 10y ago
  > There was also a shortage of the Radioactive material to make the RTGs From my understanding, this shortage is caused by the lack of nuclear power facilities in the USA - which supports the GGP's point about negative political/public reactions to anything nuclear.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    We have a lot of nuclear power plants. There hasn't been much new construction, but there hasn't been much decommissioning either. It makes up about 20% of our total electrical generating capacity. The problem is that turning nuclear reactors into Pu238 requires a lot of extra work and equipment. They produce small amounts, but separating it out is tough. You can make more by irradiating other waste products, but that's not easy either. Apparently some stuff used for making nuclear weapons can be used for this purpose (note that nuclear weapons use Pu239, not 238) and the shortage happened because those facilities were closed.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    France has over 80% nuclear - there's no shortage of that in the EU. But actively seperating out the required materials is the same processing step as is required for building nuclear weapons, and that's something that's a political problem, and will cost you a lot of money to prove and inspect everything every few days to ensure it's only used for civil uses.