Posted on 01/16/2006 1:39:37 AM PST by presidio9
More than eight years ago, hundreds of protesters chanted anti-nuclear slogans before NASA launched a spacecraft to Saturn carrying 72 pounds of plutonium fuel. The noise before this week's launch of a craft with a similar payload has been more muted.
Only 30 anti-nuclear protesters showed up recently to oppose a plutonium-fueled mission to Pluto. The most raucous it got was when protesters tied colorful origami birds to the fence of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
"Folks tend to forget," said protest organizer Maria Telesca of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
But Telesca and other protesters said the threat of a nuclear accident is no less real with the New Horizons mission to Pluto than it was with the launch of Cassini to Saturn in 1997.
Plutonium fuel has been used on two other spacecrafts taking off from the Cape Canaveral area since Cassini's launch. The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, sent up in 2003, had much smaller amounts of plutonium, which creates energy from natural radioactive decay.
Twenty-four pounds of radioactive plutonium is located in New Horizon's radioisotope thermoelectric generator, an aluminum-encased, 123-pound cylinder, 3 1/2 feet long and 1 1/2-foot wide, that sticks out of the spacecraft like a gun on a tank.
Inside the cylinder are 18 graphite-enclosed compartments, each holding 1 1/3 pounds of the plutonium dioxide. Similar generators previously have been used to power six Apollo flights and 19 other U.S. space missions.
NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have put the probability of an early-launch accident that would cause plutonium to be released at 1 in 350 chances.
NASA last year estimated the cost of decontamination, should there be a serious accident with plutonium released during the launch, at anywhere from $241 million to $1.3 billion per square mile, depending on the size of the area.
If there was an accident during an early phase of the launch, the maximum mean radiation dose received by an individual within 62 miles of the launch site would be about 80 percent of the amount each U.S. resident receives annually from natural background radiation, according to NASA's environmental impact statement.
The space agency is setting up two radiological control centers and deploying 16 mobile field teams that can detect radiation around the launch site. Medical personnel at local hospitals also have been trained in the treatment of patients exposed to radioactive materials, and the launch required the approval of the White House.
The emergency plans are ready for Tuesday, "if need be, but hopefully not," NASA launch director Omar Baez said Sunday at a news conference.
Some NASA safety managers had raised concerns about the New Horizons mission when a fuel tank similar to the one expected to be used failed a pressure test during factory evaluation.
The original launch date was pushed back a few days to allow more time to examine the flight tank, but the decision ultimately was made to fly since the flight tank was in pristine condition and had no signs of any defects, Baez said.
Even if plutonium were released during an accident at launch, the risk to the population would be low because of the small amount of nuclear material and the remoteness of the launch pad from populated areas, said Alice Caponiti, nuclear material and safety manager at the Department of Energy's Office of Space and Defense Power Systems.
"Once you get a probability of an accident occurring, the question is what's the impact to people?" Caponiti said. "That's where the risk is low."
There's probably very little radiation in outer space anyway.
-insert Uranus joke here-
Hmmmmmmm.
Shouldn't these folks be busy in Tehran?
Nah, Tehran is too intolerant. These folks only poke fingers at tolerant ones.
Maybe they could protest Iran?
Scary.
"Down with the Sun, down with the Sun! We demand a solar system free of nuclear reactions!!!."
What idiots!
Chances of an accident occuring - ~0%
Chances of an accident harming innocent people - ~20%
Chances of an accident injuring one of these nutjobs - ~80%
These nuts should be put on the rocket to Pluto.
Two years later, a few people objected to the drums we added to the second service, the one they will never attend.
Today, there are few complaints against how we worship. The sad secret?
The people who protested are dead, done in by natural forces and time, and were not replaced because this is a different world we live in today. And this is exactly the same case. The 60's are over, the technology is proven, and todays kids care more about the latest I-pod than standing out on a cold street corner with a placard for hours on end. Good or bad, you can't argue with entropy.
The post is apt. Read it all the way through.
Just a thought: when you post an object lesson, it helps to state directly the relevance to the topic at hand if you want to avoid the dread "bunny/pancake". A simple. "The same can be said of those who protest these launches." would help clarify things.
That is background count at sea level. It's more than that just living in the rocky mountain region. Heck I grew up with uranium samples in my bedroom.
The space agency is setting up two radiological control centers and deploying 16 mobile field teams that can detect radiation around the launch site.
Just plain dumb. Adds fuel to the illogic of the "OH MY GOD IT'S RADIATION" nutters.
Medical personnel at local hospitals also have been trained in the treatment of patients exposed to radioactive materials,
This is even more ridiculous! I can see this now: Citizen goes into hospital. Ummm.. I received one extra REM this year. Hospital, how do you know? Citizen - because the rocket blew up. I need evidence to sue NASA.
and the launch required the approval of the White House.
I think this is silly as well.
True story: A truck carrying DIRT from a uranium mine tipped over on I-25 a few years ago. Hit the national news; “Uranium carrying dirt has spilled in Colorado”. The Governor was fielding calls from anxious parents about little Johnny and little Sally attending CU (over 90 miles away from the DIRT spill). Gads hasmat teams were all over it, suits, counters, special trucks (remember this stuff is just dug up and dumped into uncovered dump trucks. I can't even begin to guess how much this cost the state. Bet I could retire comfortably for the rest of my life on it though.
Granite counter tops are all the rage now. Bet the stores who sell them don't advertise that Uranium is naturally occurring in granite.
Another true story: A local high school student was wandering thru the fields back of his High School and found (GASP) the broken end of a thermometer. The school was closed, hasmat called, dirt ripped up, students checked, what a circus.
We live in a nation of uneducated pansies.
I bet if someone told these folks that the first nuclear fission reactors were NATURALLY occurring in Africa millions of years ago when the U-235 percentage was higher, they would give up. Anything that comes from nature must be okay.
They still would not "see". Sigh.
For anyone interested here is a good site:
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0010.shtml
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