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Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power by psswrdshmashwrd on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @10:04AM (#10220666)
I agree thorium isn't without its problems, but the end byproduct of a lftr reactor is plutonium.
Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power by oppositelock on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @10:21AM (#10220774)
LFTR's produce 239Pu (among a mess of other stuff), that's the stuff that goes BOOM in nuclear bombes, not 238Pu that glows warmly to make power for spacecraft.
Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power by Roodgorf on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @12:05PM (#10221399)
As Jobu points out from Wikipedia: he second proliferation resistant feature comes from the fact that LFTRs produce very little plutonium, around 15 kg per gigawatt-year of electricity ... This plutonium is also mostly Pu-238. According the article this seems like quite a bit more than is currently being produced, is it not viable for use in RTGs for some reason? Or is the cost of a LFTR over the course of a year less cost effective than the current method of Np to Pu?

I have very little knowledge of the science here, I'm just not sure what all I'm missing.