"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
On 02/05/15 14:15, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Robin" writes:
Davey wrote:
What do they use for those
long-range satellites, like Voyager?

The Voyager satelllites used the heat from radioactiuve decay of
plutonium and thermocouples. It wasn't weapons grade plutonium but if
you tried that at home I think you'd soon make some new acquaintances
early one morning

There's only enough Plutonium-238 left in the world for a handfull
of satellites - US has enough for 3 (bought from Russia, having run
out of its own stock), and Russia probably has around the same amount
itself. This is severely limiting the ability to plan future long
term space missions.

There's far too much.
A costly embarrasmnet.
As with other useless nuclear waste/scrap, no-body knows how to deal with
it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21505271