Hi Martin
I have a question based on what you wrote, and I only quoted the
relevant part of your message below:
I wonder if the tundra in Northern Canada would really be safe after
such an event? I am skeptical. And how do people go around cleaning
stuff up like that?
Martin wrote: While this satellite only presented a danger if one
happened to be unlucky enough to have been standing under pieces
of falling junk, I am reminded of the Russian spy satellite that
did fall in to Northern Canada many years ago. That satellite
had what is called a nuclear thermopile as its power supply. This
is a container of a radio-active element such as strontium which
keeps itself red hot for years by all the atomic decay going on.
It's like a tiny atomic reactor and the generator is a series of
thermocouples similar to ones you might have in your water
heater or gas stove to signal that the pilot light has not gone
out. Each thermocouple generates some voltage when heated so a
whole pile of them, so to speak, makes enough current to run the
systems on the satellite.
These power plants are fine and dandy as long as they do
not fall back to Earth and break open, spewing their contents
everywhere.
The Russian satellite crashed in the tundra of Northern
Canada and splattered radio-active pieces everywhere.
Specially trained emergency workers flew a plane with a
detector on board and crisscrossed the area until they were able
to alert the ground crew where all the hot spots were so they
could remove them and make the area safe again.
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