"Bruce Farquhar" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 19:33:23 -0000, Rod Speed
wrote:



"Bruce Farquhar" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 03:39:31 -0000, Rod Speed
wrote:



"Bruce Farquhar" wrote in message
news On Sun, 09 Dec 2018 23:28:59 -0000, danny burstein
wrote:

In "Bruce Farquhar"
writes:

Why are these not used on earth?

Do you really, really, want chunks of plutonium
or strontium 90i sitting around?

We do have nuclear power stations which can and do explode....

Those ones used on earth don't.

Funny how some have in the past.

Just one has, Fukushima.

And even you should have noticed that with an unmanned
light house or warning light on the top of a mountain etc
that it's not that easy to stop someone grabbing it and
taking it home to power their remote holiday shack etc.

Yes but what has that to do with this conversation?

That's why few have used those on earth.

Even you should have noticed that they are a tad
harder to pinch for your holiday shack when in a
space probe tearing off to look at Venus etc.

Just what size of these things are you considering people might nick,

Varys with what they are powering. The ones that power lighthouses
are obviously bigger than the ones powering beacon lights

And it isnt might nick, the russians have had some nicked.

what does it power,

Mostly lighthouses, beacons and stuff like that. Not
sure if they ever used them to power mobile bases.

and why wouldn't they steal an alternate power device?

Those small nukes don't have any fuel costs.

Well, since you ask:

[wiki]

In addition to spacecraft, the Soviet Union constructed
many unmanned lighthouses and navigation beacons
powered by RTGs.[5]
......
One RTG, the SNAP-19C, was lost near the top of Nanda
Devi mountain in India in 1965 when it was stored
in a rock formation near the top of the mountain
in the face of a snowstorm before it could be
installed to power a CIA remote automated station
collecting telemetry from the Chinese rocket testing facility.
=======
rest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioi...tric_generator
On Sat, 08 Dec 2018 21:04:59 -0000, Brian Gaff

wrote:

I'm sure you know this but the Voyager spacecraft are using
thermocouples
using the heat from decaying plutonium for power all the way out
in
the
cosmos. it may be reducing now but its been one heck of a long
time.