Lack of plutonium for space probes

[David Rosignoli]

Looks like the end of the cold war has caused a lack of plutonium, which will hinder deep space probe development unless the DOE reinstates plutonium development. Of course this stuff is never cheap.

Dave

Fuel for deep space exploration running on empty

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090507/ap_ ... _plutonium

Thanks, Chris.

[Dan Tibbets]

I Googled plutonium 238 once I realized that it was different than the plutonium used in bombs of which there is obvously a plentiful supply (Pu239) .
A more detailed presentation, possibly from which the original link was derived is below.

http://www.nuclear.energy.gov/neac/Meet ... 042108.pdf

Also, the Wikipedia article-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisoto ... _generator


Dan Tibbets

[Starfire]

Opps! the pdf link dont seem to work Dan

[Dan Tibbets]

J H, I just clicked on the PDF link and it worked for me. Perhaps the internet hiccuped when you tried. I'm using Microsoft Internet Explorer and I've screwed up my security settings so much that I cannot get some sites to work, like NOAA weather video, alot of JAVA based interactive sites, etc. so I'm guessing it was a temperary thing (or not).


Dan Tibbets