[meteorite-list] OT? NASA & Radioactive Risks

From: geoking_at_notkin.net <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:29 2004
Message-ID: <v04220808ba7c026a72b5_at_[64.157.77.116]>

Dear Listees:

The following article is excepted from London's "Independent." The
full story (dealing initially with "Columbia" wreckage retrieval) can
be found here:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=376682

In light of all the NASA and "Columbia"-related posts we have been
reading, I thought this might be of interest to many, especially
since an accident with one of these rockets carrying radioactive
material could produce, perhaps, the most destructive meteorite in
recent times -- a lump of plutonium-238 plummeting back to Earth?

A "one-in-30 chance" of a launch accident doesn't sound too
reassuring. Don't get me wrong -- I'm very pro-space program -- but
it's worrying to discover that risky nuclear propulsion is still in
use and even, it seems, gaining favor.

Any thoughts, Ron?

Regards,

Geoff N.
www.paleozoic.org


***********


Nasa has said that all manned spaceflights will be suspended until it
can get to the bottom of the Columbia disaster and correct the fatal
problem. Concerns about the safety of travel through the earth's
atmosphere do not, however, appear to have derailed Nasa plans to
launch two unmanned rockets loaded with plutonium in the next few
months.

The Independent on Sunday has learned that Nasa has rejected pleas to
suspend missions involving radioactive material, even though its own
assessments reveal that the rockets are three times more likely to
have an accident than the shuttle.

The two Mars explorer rockets, scheduled for launch from Cape
Canaveral on 30 May and 25 June, will each contain small amounts of
plutonium-238, which in the event of a launch failure could put tens
of thousands of people at risk from radioactive fallout. Each probe
will carry Radioisotope Heater Units (RHUs) containing 2.7 grams of
the deadly isotope.

Nasa's own environmental impact statement acknowledges that there is
a one-in-30 chance of a launch accident and a one-in-230 chance of an
accidental release of radioactive material for each rocket. The
accident rate for the shuttle was calculated at one per 100 launches.

The proposed use of nuclear materials has not generated significant
debate in the US because media attention has been focused squarely on
the Columbia investigation. For the past two days, television
stations have shown and reshown military surveillance photographs
from a base in New Mexico indicating a slight bulge in Columbia's
left wing and a plume emanating from behind it. The head of the US
shuttle program, Ron Dittemore, told reporters the photographs were
certainly of interest but added: "All by itself I don't think it's
very revealing."

The nuclear issue is nevertheless at the forefront of Nasa's thinking
and endorsed at the highest levels of government. The Mars explorer
rockets are to be followed by two further launches of deep space
probes containing plutonium-238: the Pluto New Horizons project in
2008 and Mars Smart Lander the next year. Each are being designed to
carry Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators which use heat from
plutonium to generate electricity.

President Bush, meanwhile, has revived plans for nuclear-powered
rockets which were abandoned in the 1960s amid warnings that they
could cause a global environmental catastrophe. Nasa proposals for a
$2bn research and development grant for the nuclear spacecraft were
confirmed by the White House last Monday, just two days after the
shuttle disaster, although there has yet to be a formal announcement..

The $3bn programme, codenamed Project Prometheus - after the figure
who stole fire from Zeus - is designed to be a 75,000mph rocket,
which could put men on Mars. While the projects' initial objectives
are ostensibly for scientific exploration, much of the impetus for
funding comes from the Pentagon, which wants to launch weapons into
space as part of its revived Star Wars initiative.

The push for nuclear power in space follows President Bush's
appointment of Sean O'Keefe, an ardently pro-nuclear former defence
chief, as head of Nasa. He has likened conventional rockets, which
can reach 18,000 mph, to "exploring the old west in covered wagons."
Shortly before the Columbia crash he said: "We're talking about doing
something on a very aggressive schedule to not only develop the
capabilities for nuclear propulsion and power generation but to have
a mission using the new technology within this decade."

The last major accident involving radioactive material in space was
in 1967, when a US satellite fitted with a nuclear-powered electrical
generator failed to achieve orbit and burned up in the atmosphere,
spreading radioactive fallout widely over Earth.
Received on Fri 21 Feb 2003 11:36:30 AM PST