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Comment by mmooss | Hacker News Reader

> fission reactor

Am I wrong that the plutonium in the Voyagers is not in a fission reactor but in an RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator), which converts the heat from the plutonium into electricity. ?

I suppose the heat is result of fission, but I don't think an RTG is what is meant by a fission reactor. ??

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Voyager uses a RTG. The USSR used some full-on nuclear reactors in space, but as far as I know no one else publicly did.

Edit: Yep, not sure how I forgot about that.

The US put a fission reactor in space too. They did it first, in fact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNAP-10A

Edit: it’s apparently still there and will be for a long time (!) albeit non-functional:

  > Decay date: April 3, 5966 (planned)

Fission reactor without a moderator!

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