3 ms·

Full power for ~10,000 years, give or take.

• fragmede 2y ago
  No. You're thinking of nuclear waste. Voyager's RTG lasted "only" a few decades.
  • jaggederest 2y ago
    Design choice, not an inherent constraint. Plutonium has a half life in excess of 25000 years
    • chickenbig 2y ago
      > Design choice Presumably this is why Pu-238 is used for RTGs where power density matters; a half life of 87.7 years means a reasonably long working life using with only 1/3% of the mass compared to Pu-239.
      • jaggederest 2y ago
        Oh yeah you're probably right, I didn't think about it being a different isotope. I figured they just kept it near-critical to keep it toasty instead of a shorter half life.
    • mlindner 2y ago
      Long half life also means low energy output.