3 ms·
There are plenty of earth orbiting actual fission reactors, not like the RTGs you have heard about. There were quite a few sent up by the Soviets (from 1967-19
by perl4ever 7y ago
There are plenty of earth orbiting actual fission reactors, not like the RTGs you have heard about.
There were quite a few sent up by the Soviets (from 1967-1988) and at least one malfunctioned, failed to eject its reactor into a disposal orbit and scattered radioactive waste across northern Canada.
Even the Soviets didn't intend to send nuclear reactors to burn up on reentry; I'd be surprised if that was anyone's plan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BES-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BES-5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_1402 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_1402
"...44 kg of uranium had been dispersed into the stratosphere after the incident..."
- kjs3 7y agoI've more than "heard about" RTGs, and I'm well aware of the kind of reactors that have been shot into space. We can argue the level of "intend", but in the Cold War, the reentry of a nuclear reactor was considered an acceptable cost of doing business.