[meteorite-list] OT? NASA & Radioactive Risks

From: almitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:29 2004
Message-ID: <3E56C78D.2C727DCA_at_kconline.com>

Hi Geoff and all,

I will probably be over my head here but will make a comment. Those more in the know
can set me straight. I don't know at what time NASA activates its small reactors but
plutonium-238, if it is like the fuel in reactors that produce electricity, can be
held in an unprotected hand before it is placed in the glass rods and into the
reactor. It isn't until the moderation takes place and the material is used to run the
reactors that they become dangerous with radioactivity. The fuel is dangerous after it
is spent more so than when it is simply plutonium-238. Not to say you would want to
eat a pellet before it is used. If the reactor aboard the spacecraft is activated
after the launch then there should be minimum danger. If it is activated days or just
before the launch it would have some danger but not as much if it had been running for
a long time and contained the more dangerous amounts of spent fuel.

Enjoyed your photos of the Taza and Sikhote-Alin look a likes!

--AL

geoking_at_notkin.net wrote:

> 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
Received on Fri 21 Feb 2003 07:42:54 PM PST