It seems highly unlikely that any scientists would make subpar choices that may compromise a long-term project on the off chance that it might cause some politi

It seems highly unlikely that any scientists would make subpar choices that may compromise a long-term project on the off chance that it might cause some political discomfort. The latter isn't even particularly likely since there is a large difference between nuclear power as an energy source on Earth and nuclear technology for scientific use in space. In addition most of the public doesn't even know or is interested in the technical details of a mission like this. Therefore it is extremely unlikely that using RTG technology would have caused any kind of political problems which makes avoiding said technology on political grounds simply nonsensical when it has the potential to compromise the overall mission.