Twenty year old, billion dollar reactor runs for one hour in total before decomissioning decision.

[Chris Hogg]

According to Cohen, (Op.cit. p.220) 99.99% of ingested plutonium is excreted in a few days, so doesn't hang around long enough to do any damage by irradiation.

[Chris Hogg]

Just remembered that Cohen's book is available on-line for all to read:

[dennis]

It produces half a watt per gram so its not going to glow red hot unless you have a fair bit or its insulated in some way.

If it were red hot then aluminium wouldn't be a good casing.

[Tim Streater]

So a few hundred grams will generate a few/2 hundred watts. That would be enough to make a slug of the stuff pretty damn hot.