strontium-90

Updated: May 17, 2025

Inside was about a kilogram of strontium-90; it would keep on emitting electrons for twenty-five years, normally, but there was a miniature plutonium reactor, itself shielded with collapsium, which, among other things, speeded that process up considerably. A cartridge was good for about five years; two of them kept the engines in operation.

H. Beam Piper - Four-Day Planet

Something about planting loose strontium-90 in the upholstery of the Audience Throne, wasn't it?" And before that, somebody had been trying to smuggle a fission bomb into the Palace in a wine cask, and before that, it was a booby trap in the elevator, and before that, somebody was planning to build a submachine gun into the viewscreen in the study, and

H. Beam Piper - Ministry of Disturbance