@jhv
Wait...waitwait, I have this on my card.
WHOOP!
@jhv @SpeakerToManagers Article is basically jump-scare clickbait. US uses ceramic-core RTGs in space because they're a viable power source for >50 year missions out past Jupiter (not enough sunlight for solar): they're so rugged they've survived uncontrolled re-entries and launch pad explosions intact. Sov version uses cheaper isotopes, to power remote lighthouses/weather stations. They're pretty safe … if nobody steals them for scrap metal. Which is the real problem.
@cstross @SpeakerToManagers If people are stealing them for scrap, then they're not safe. It's also an issue that Russia can't account for them all.
@jhv @SpeakerToManagers Same problem as medical cobalt sources being stolen for scrap in Mexico, then. Or a similar cobalt source used for mining being lost in Australia recently. The issue is one of normal security—keeping track of your assets, not "this can be turned into a terrorist nuke" stuff.
@cstross @SpeakerToManagers Sure. And I don't think anyone was suggesting that someone's going to build a nuclear bomb. Someone could, I guess, build a dirty conventional bomb -- a big pile of whatever explosive full of, say, Strontium-90 -- but it might be easier to be a terrorist in more conventional ways. Dunno.
@jhv @SpeakerToManagers I'm going to go with these RTGs being vandalized as *less* alarming than the Russian mafia getting their hands on Novichok nerve agents (which was apparently a thing a decade or two ago). It's a symptom of a state in collapse.