Re: Skunk Works

["Bob La Londe" <none@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:58aa6f7e-d038-41bf-9899-a2965cc473f9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> On Saturday, October 18, 2014 6:49:31 PM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>
>>
>> I believe some satellites were powered with a nuclear battery.  The
>>
>> distinction I do not know, but supposedly it is not a reactor.
>>
>>
>>
>> From Wikipedia.  This does not sound like a reactor to me:
>>
>>
>>
>> A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is an electrical
>>
>> generator that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat
>> released
>>
>> by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the
>>
>> Seebeck effect.
>>
>>
>>
>> RTGs have been used as power sources in satellites, space probes and
>>
>> unmanned remote facilities such as a series of lighthouses built by the
>>
>> former Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle. RTGs are usually the most
>>
>> desirable power source for robotic or unmaintained situations that need a
>>
>> few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel
>> cells,
>>
>> batteries, or generators to provide economically and in places where
>> solar
>>
>> cells are not practical. Safe use of RTGs requires containment of the
>>
>> radioisotopes long after the productive life of the unit.
>
> Isn't that the whole problem with fusion?

I don't know about fusion, but that is certainly the problem with fission
plants.