Why are Radioactives valuable?

[Murphy]

Wait. What? Are you telling me in a universe that has several star spanning civilizations, has mastered faster than light travel, has artificial and anti gravity, massive ship mounted energy weapons, that radioactives are still hard to mine, refine and transport? Ha. Ha, ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! No. Just simply no. Rare? Sure, I’ll buy that. The rest? Please.

Well, people in Traveller just seem to often do things the hard way.

For example, at TL10+, there should be easily no need to ever do vacc-suited EVA. Yet there are people who mine asteroids by laser cutting them, then (semi)manually stuffing the chunks into their cargo bay.

I had always assumed it was just part of the setting and its charm. After all, it is based on 1970s sci-fi ideas that long since became retro.

 

[far-trader]

Well, people in Traveller just seem to often do things the hard way.

For example, at TL10+, there should be easily no need to ever do vacc-suited EVA. Yet there are people who mine asteroids by laser cutting them, then (semi)manually stuffing the chunks into their cargo bay.

Well as soon as you start down that path (teleoperator or smart robotics) you don't have an rpg since the only skills characters will have are Remote Ops-6 and Robotics-6... and maybe Video Gamer-9

I had always assumed it was just part of the setting and its charm. After all, it is based on 1970s sci-fi ideas that long since became retro.

That and like I said, you want to play an rpg you need to have Characters involved and at risk. The threat of carpal tunnel syndrome or other rsi and such from being hunched over a panel and screen just isn't all that adventurous

 

[Murphy]

Yes. To megacorps, people are cheaper to replace than robots. And to an individual, taking risk is better than spending 90% of your gains on robot maintenance Besides, you get to be the hero who defused that bomb, boarded that derelict and retrieved that sample from Niflheim (oops).

Anyway, the point was, the retro-fashion of Traveller dictates that radioactives are unobtanium. This could easily be justified too, so long as we're not talking merely mundane radioactives like uranium.

 

[jshiggin]

Hello everyone.

I've long been puzzled by this question - if the Imperium long since uses hydrogen-fueled fusion power, and its nuclear weaponry is actually thermonuclear, then what use can uranium see that it's worth 1MCr per displacement ton (per Mongoose rules)?

Yes, it probably does see use in fission power plants on mid-tech worlds, and maybe in fission-fusion thermonuclear bombs like the ones built on modern Earth. It still hardly justifies such extreme value for fission-able materials.

Anyone know what am I missing here?

1MCr per displacement ton (assuming Uranium as the radioactive) is about 4 credits per kg.

If a credit were worth about as much as a dollar, then the price of radioactives is only about three times as high as gasoline is today.

In other words, what you're missing is that 1MCr / displacement ton really isn't very much money.

 

[77topaz]

1MCr per displacement ton (assuming Uranium as the radioactive) is about 4 credits per kg.

If a credit were worth about as much as a dollar, then the price of radioactives is only about three times as high as gasoline is today.

In other words, what you're missing is that 1MCr / displacement ton really isn't very much money.

Isn't a credit supposed to be about 20 (probably American) dollars?

 

[aramis]

Isn't a credit supposed to be about 20 (probably American) dollars?

No. If you check the CT prices, they correspond almost 1:1 with 1976 era US dollars.

Which puts them between 3 and 5 current dollars.

Note that the different eras all seem to have based housing and upkeep on then current average income corrected to 1976/77 US dollars...

 

[atpollard]

1MCr per displacement ton (assuming Uranium as the radioactive) is about 4 credits per kg.

On the other hand, 1 MCr per metric tonne is 1000 credits (+/- $4000) per kg
(Still not all that expensive, really).