Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Although I've seen canon materials on the use of nuclear power plants, and communities using the reactors of submarines and/or warships to generate power, this is the first I've heard of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs).
https://jalopnik.com/ussr-sprinkled-...ros-1850501190
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RTGs are pretty dangerous little things. Their core is "thermionic", heat causes electricity flow in a solid state material. RTGs use the decay of plutonium to generate the heat. They don't produce a lot of the power for their mass but they're solid state so don't require much if any maintenance and will run for a couple decades before the heat of decay gets too low to generate power.
They're dangerous because they have a little chunk of highly radioactive plutonium. If made into a dirty bomb (even by accident) it could spread highly radiative material over a very large area.
That being said they could make a great MacGuffin for a weapon. Their output is just enough to run some electrical equipment (lighthouse, LORAN beacon, etc) rather than a town or military base. But as a WMD they might be very desirable.