triangletoot.party is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Mastodon instance focused on the Triangle region of North Carolina. Keeping out jerks since 2019. Anti-racist, anti-fascist, and anti-TERF.

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@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.