[FPSPACE] US Plutonium for RTGs

[Allen Thomson]

DwayneDay communicated,


> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/politics/27nuke.html?hp&ex=1119931200&en=c7773ecb46469c9c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
> June 27, 2005
> U.S. Has Plans to Again Make Own Plutonium
> By WILLIAM J. BROAD

[snippo]

For an earlier round of this, see 
http://www.space.com/news/nasa_plutonium_020724.html .


 National Security Needs Cut Into NASA's Plutonium Inventory
 By Brian Berger
 Space News Staff Writer
 posted: 11:30 am ET
 24 July 2002

WASHINGTON - New demands from the U.S. national security community have cut 
into the supply of Plutonium 238 available to be used for upcoming space 
science missions, a Department of Energy official said...

Earl Wahlquist, associate director of the Department of Energy's Space and 
Defense Power Systems Office, said July 23 that 7 kilograms of Plutonium 
238 - slightly more than half of the U.S. inventory - is being reassigned 
for use by an undisclosed national security agency.