The Nanda Devi mystery – Plutonium lost on India’s second highest mountain (opens in new tab)

(livemint.com)

61 pointsmknits10y ago10 comments

10 comments

As for missing RTG's, it would not be at all surprising if they grew legs.

Maybe not the locals, but I would think most educated modern people, if they found the equipment, would have a large clue what was inside. There are not too many things you can put in a box on an isolated mountain top that would make it stay hot. It's not batteries, and it's not a engine.

In the late sixties, there were a dozen governments that would pay handsomely for such a box.

CHY87210y ago

Yes, but how many people are well educated? The USSR made many similar devices, for powering lighthouses etc, and most of them are rusting away. A number of people have died after trying to steal the casing for scrap.

anoncow10y ago

>Takeda quotes McCarthy: “I saw the sherpas fighting over who got to carry (the SNAP),” adding: “They had no idea of what it was. They’d put the thing in the middle of their tent and huddle around it. I guarantee none of them are alive now.”

I wonder if they themselves knew about the risk involved.

Tuna-Fish10y ago

If they fully knew the risks, they would have probably used the device to warm up themselves. The plutonium-238 used in the SNAP devices is notable for not having any significant decay modes other than alpha. So long as the device remains intact, a sheet of paper is sufficient for radiation shielding.

hga10y ago

I've always read the outer layers of your skin are sufficient; just avoid ingestion or inhalation and you're fine.

This is a very sloppy and/or fear mongering article, e.g. when it talks about the device being 1/2 the size of the Hiroshima bomb, which was a uranium gun assembly design. It never points out you can't make this isotope of plutonium go boom, or the much fuzzier probability that a breach of the containment wouldn't likely cause a widespread contamination problem.

rpenm10y ago

Reactor-grade plutonium in the headwaters of the Ganges, which supplies millions of people. Probably better if it was stolen than lost.

kiers7710y ago

THE REAL QUESTION OF DESIGN: How much WATTAGE/POWER would a 56kg package of Guru Rinpoche (made of plutonium) be able to generate?

any scientists care to comment?

tarre10y ago

Curiosity has a battery of 5 kg and it delivers 2 kW thermal and 125 W electric power.

qnaal10y ago

so- if the mountain wasn't magical before, it is now

throwaway_9710y ago

Did they find it?

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