National Security Cuts Into NASA's Plutonium 76
cleveland61 writes "Space.com is reporting that an "undisclosed national security agency" is being assigned 7 Kg of NASA's 16 Kg supply of Pu 238. With a half life of 90 years Pu 238 is used mainly used in cases where batteries won't do here on earth. (Pacemakers, deep sea diving suits,etc.) It also provided the fuel for the Cassini Probe. My question is; Who is getting it and what are they using it for? Please tell me its Doc Brown looking for his 1.21 jigawatts!"
Re:Perhaps (Score:3, Informative)
Along the bomb line...
we already have a lot of nuclear material stockpiled in bomb form...
Re:Just a guess (Score:3, Informative)
Re:two answers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Think small (Score:3, Informative)
Might be usefull for tamping though but U 238 is lots cheaper.
The half life of Pu 239 is 25,000 years and I have heard that it is warm to the touch. Pu 238 would be still warmer yet.
The half life of U 235 is 730 million years.
If fissile isotopes had short half lives we wouldn't have bombs or reactors. The fissile material would decay away too fast.
Correction.... (Score:4, Informative)
Just so you know the accepted pronunciation of giga was actually " JIGA ", hence the usage in Back to the Future, people just stopped using that pronunciation when gigabyte drives became more prevalent in consumer goods cause people saw the G and figured it was said like Go instead of like Giant . So the time machine in the movie was powered by 1,210 megawatts, or 1.21 gigawatts.
Re:two answers (Score:3, Informative)