In a Stirling radioisotope system, heat must continually be removed from the General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) modules to maintain the modules and surrounding insulation at acceptable temperatures. The Stirling converter normally provides this cooling. If the Stirling convertor stops in the current system the insulation is designed to spoil, preventing damage to the GPHS at the cost of an earlier termination of the mission. An alkali‐metal Variable Conductance Heat Pipe (VCHP) can be used to allow multiple stops and restarts of the Stirling convertor. A sodium VCHP with a Haynes 230 envelope was designed and fabricated for the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), with a baseline 850° C heater head temperature. When the Stirling convertor is stopped, the heat from the GPHS is rejected to the Cold Side Adapter Flange using a low‐mass, carbon‐carbon radiator. The VCHP is designed to activate with a AT of 30° C. The 880° C temperature when the Stirling convertor is stopped is high enough to avoid...