Submitted by Vegetable_Noise_1124 t3_116j7cm in explainlikeimfive
BillWoods6 t1_j98l2k4 wrote
Reply to comment by fiendishrabbit in Eli5 How does nuclear fuel get spent so fast? by Vegetable_Noise_1124
> Basically a radioactive element that has been arranged to encourage it to just react a little bit faster.
They don't; there's no way to do that. RTGs just use isotopes that decay pretty quickly. Notably plutonium-238, which has a half-life of only 88 years.
fiendishrabbit t1_j994x7e wrote
Subcritical RTGs is a thing. Notably for the designs intended to last more than a few decades.
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