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The radiation emitted by plutonium 238, which is what's found inside RTGs, is easily shielded by essentially any solid material. The real reason you don't want
by khuey 6y ago
The radiation emitted by plutonium 238, which is what's found inside RTGs, is easily shielded by essentially any solid material.
The real reason you don't want an RTG powering your fridge is that it costs on the order of one million dollars per watt.
- waheoo 6y agoEconomies of scale would surely change that though?
- briga 6y agoPlutonium is fairly rare, so I'm not sure it could be scaled up easily, even if there was a demand for it. Not to mention we probably don't want the raw material for nuclear bombs to be inside easily accessible home appliances...
- tachyonbeam 6y agoTo some extent, but plutonium is relatively rare. Because it's radioactive an it decays, there isn't that much in nature. You can make some as a byproduct of uranium fission reactors, but again, I believe collecting and refining it takes a lot of energy... You could always cover your roof in solar panels. They could potentially last 40 years, and the cost is anywhere between 10K to 20K installed. It's relatively affordable amortized over a 30-year mortgage, and considering it produces usable power.
- rtkwe 6y agoPlutonium was generated in reactors in the US but those were all shut down by the late 80s. It's not an easy thing to just mine or make more of there were whole reactors basically dedicated to just what we have left today. In fact we're kind of running out of the stuff for scientific missions, NASA only has enough for one RTG left according to reports. https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/pu50yc.html https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/pu50yc.html https://mjosefweber.medium.com/nasa-needs-plutonium-ea3bbaad8736 https://mjosefweber.medium.com/nasa-needs-plutonium-ea3bbaad...
- khuey 6y agoThe situation for Pu-238 production has improved since that was written https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-produced-plutonium-238-help-power-perseverance-mars https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-produced-plutonium-238-help-p...
- simcop2387 6y agoNot really, it's all artificially produced and would require generation of lots of power (it comes from reactors) to produce it at scale. The only times we used to do it at any reasonable scale was for nuclear weapons. It's also restricted by treaty because of this.
- 0xfaded 6y agoI was thinking it would be fun to buy some uranium 238 (you can have up to ~7kg of it without a license). Then I tried ddg'ing what it would cost to dispose of. I couldn't find an answer, so I decided buying uranium wasn't a good idea. It's hard enough getting rid of an old lead-cell battery.
- lostlogin 6y agoI do wonder what it takes to end up on a watch list and assumed attempting to get plutonium or even discussing an attempt would be a guarantee. I went searching and this website on watch lists appears to be real, whilst also seeming like a joke. “Since there are many reasons why a traveler may seek redress, DHS TRIP works with the TSC, as appropriate, when an inquiry appears to be related to the watchlist. The TSC does not accept redress inquiries directly from the public. Instead, members of the public should contact the relevant screening agency with their questions or concerns about screening.” https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/national-security-branch/tsc https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/national-...
- efreak 6y agoI can't imagine people would like seeing enriched uranium. Sure it'd make a good story, but people don't even want to see my ore sample. Deleted uranium should also be fun; I'd love to have some dice made of it: https://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/consumer%20products/dudice.htm https://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/consumer%20products/dudi...
- matheusmoreira 6y ago> easily shielded by essentially any solid material If that shield fails for any reason, including tampering, you're looking at the radiological contamination and likely deaths of everyone nearby at the very least.
- khuey 6y agoAlpha sources outside the human body are of little health concern. You'd have to break it open and eat the plutonium inside for it to be a serious risk.
- matheusmoreira 6y ago> You'd have to break it open and eat the plutonium inside for it to be a serious risk. Yes. Sounds like something a child would do.
- snet0 6y agoYes, just like how children regularly eat kitchen knives.
- serf 6y agoaside from the fact that 'breaking open a refrigerator' doesn't remotely sound like something a child would ever do to me, let's assume the worst and the child somehow opens up a refrigerator. a conventional fridge has electric motors/pumps , live a/c wiring, and gas under pressure. It's not radiation-spilling-everywhere unsafe, but it's not really safe for the kid, either.
- matheusmoreira 6y agoThat refrigerator is discarded. It ends up in a scrapyard. Someone comes, sees the shielded capsule containing radioactive material and harvests the lead. The remains are eventually sold to someone else and it ends up in that person's home where children are likely to become fascinated by it or even eat it. Everyone who went near this thing is likely to become ill at the very least.
- yread 6y agoPlutonium is also highly (chemically) toxic.
- imhoguy 6y agoAnd recycling en masse would be nightmare. We got anough hassle with R* gases.
- avereveard 6y agoThey're also quite massive, and radiate a lot of waste heat.