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There's probably plenty of human risk transporting it to the launcher, as well, such as a road accident or having it be stolen.


RTGs are incredibly well built and designed to survive a launch accident (indeed, they have done so) without releasing radioactive material. A road accident would be nothing in comparison. As for theft, that seems very unlikely, the parts are well guarded and not just put on a truck and sent across country.


> such as a road accident

No, not really. They are pretty safe - you can hold one in your hand without a problem (barring a burn - they get hot).

A road accident would do nothing harmful at all.

> having it be stolen

That strikes me as pretty unlikely - they don't exactly drive on public roads.


Nuclear missiles, fissile material, reactor cores, etc are transported on public roads - where else would they go? We haven't invented transporters yet so transportation is still roads, rail, sea, air - these things don't just magically appear at the launch site or at the power station. Someone needed to drive the semi that gets it there.

There is absolutely a chance of fissile materials being stolen in transport - that's why there's multiple levels of security and multilateral treaties with most countries around the world about this kind of issue.

http://www.patriotnetdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Nu...


I meant the road from the assembly plant to the launch platform.


Add special forces to the transport, a lot of it, and problem solved.


We drive nuclear missiles on public roads, with enough security anything is doable.





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