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From: dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: RTG Safety
Message-ID: <8603061942.AA04647@s1-b.arpa>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 13:43:50 EST
Article-I.D.: s1-b.8603061942.AA04647
Posted: Thu Mar  6 13:43:50 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 04:52:21 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 7

The 3/3/86 issue of AWST has a short piece on the safety of the Galileo
RTG.  According to the article, the worst-case shuttle accident
(explosion on the pad, in which the RTG is ejected into the
flame-deflection pit) causes the RTG to experience an overpressure of
750 pounds per square inch.  Mockup RTGs have been tested in shock tubes
at 2000 lb/in^2 without rupturing.  In the Challenger accident
overpressures are estimated to have been in the 10 - 100 lb/in^2 range.