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by wolfram74
3114 days ago
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Also it is my understanding that /because/ it dispenses with the plutonium out right it's more benign until you turn it on. Which you would presumably do after the potential for RUD in atmosphere has diminished considerably. |
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This is a good point. Here's a picture of a Plutonium-238 oxide pellet (referenced from [1]):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238#/media/File:Plut...
It will always look like that if you have no way to dump the heat -- basically it's a heat source which is always on.
On the other hand a nuclear reactor that's never been activated will have fuel that looks like this (referenced from [2]):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-235#/media/File:HEUran...
This is no doubt oversimplifying things, since Pu-238 is a pure alpha emitter, whereas once it's been activated, the fuel in a nuclear reactor will generate all sorts of nasty radioactive isotopes which in turn release alpha radiation, beta radiation, neutrons, and gamma rays. It will be pretty safe while it's still cold though -- in fact if it ends up in the ocean it's really unlikely to hurt anything, since there is already uranium dissolved in sea water.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium_238
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-235