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A comment on U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars. Parent comment

Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by BurningFrog on Sunday July 26, 2020 @11:32AM (#23957775)
I imagine* an RTG has a well enough encased piece of radioactive metal that will survive falling through the atmosphere without disintegrating.

Which makes the main danger that the Plutonium may get into the wrong hands.

* Happy to learn if that's wrong :)

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by Teknoman117 on Sunday July 26, 2020 @12:06PM (#23958047)
The plutonium in an RTG is the wrong type from a weapons perspective.

The casing on RTGs have typically been designed to survive reentry. One example is Nimbus B - the rocket failed late in flight. The RTG was recovered from the ocean, refurbished, and flown again on Nimbus 3.

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by mr_toad on Sunday July 26, 2020 @09:45PM (#23961602)
> The plutonium in an RTG is the wrong type from a weapons perspective.

You could potentially make a dirty bomb out of one. Just a conventional warhead that sprays radioactive fallout.

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Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars by mbreese on Sunday July 26, 2020 @01:31PM (#23958601)
> Happy to learn if that's wrong :)

I’m not sure I’d be happy if you were wrong about this...

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