And if you had done some more research you would know that RHUs are not the same as RTGs. To enlighten you, RHU are as you correctly stated heater units. However, these are very small units containing a tiny amount of plutonium to heat instruments etc. RTGs basically are large stacks of plutonium that have to generate much larger amounts of heat so that they can produce electricity for use in the spacecraft. The RTGs are designed to survive explosion of the launch vehicle, subsequent reentry in the atmosphere and impact on solid ground without releasing any plutonium into the environment.
If you still don't feel secure about these features, there have been two crashes involving RTGs in the past, and the design worked, no plutonium was spilled into the environment.
Baseline: RTGs are very safe.
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You just have to love environmentalists.
And if you had done some more research you would know that RHUs are not the same as RTGs. To enlighten you, RHU are as you correctly stated heater units. However, these are very small units containing a tiny amount of plutonium to heat instruments etc. RTGs basically are large stacks of plutonium that have to generate much larger amounts of heat so that they can produce electricity for use in the spacecraft. The RTGs are designed to survive explosion of the launch vehicle, subsequent reentry in the atmosphere and impact on solid ground without releasing any plutonium into the environment. If you still don't feel secure about these features, there have been two crashes involving RTGs in the past, and the design worked, no plutonium was spilled into the environment. Baseline: RTGs are very safe.