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this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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TechTakes
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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ain't also Pu-238 in severe shortage for space vehicle RTG-s?
238Pu is made from 237Np, which is almost pure isotope recovered in spent fuel reprocessing, especially for weapons use. americans stopped doing that in one of their major sites in 1988, ran out of it in 1993 and bought it from russia ever since, but russians also stopped making this isotope because it's mostly weapons grade plutonium byproduct and they have enough of it. americans still do some reprocessing but not enough to meet NASA needs, but also they started ramping it up to some degree. i understand that 241Am will be used to cover this gap at like 5x greater isotope weight