VegasRonin
Jun 5th, 2004, 9:09 PM
Is NASA's Prometheus Program putting our health and lives in jeopardy? Using Nuclear fueled space vehicles or hauling nuclear cargo will always pose a threat of global contamination. If/when accidents happen in or around our atmosphere. It wouldn't be the first time either.
On April 24, 1964, the GE-built Transit 5BN with a SNAP-9A (SNAP for Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power) system on-board failed to achieve orbit and fell from the sky, disintegrating as it burned in the atmosphere. The 2.1 pounds of Plutonium-238 (an isotope of plutonium 280 times "hotter" with radioactivity than the Plutonium-239 which is used in atomic and hydrogen bombs) in the SNAP-9A dispersed widely over the Earth. A study titled "Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear-Powered Satellites" done by a grouping of European health and radiation protection agencies later reported that "a worldwide soil sampling program carried out in 1970 showed SNAP-9A debris present at all continents and at all latitudes."
Long connecting the SNAP-9A accident and an increase of lung cancer on Earth has been Dr. John Gofman, professor emeritus of medical physics at the University of California at Berkeley, an M.D. and Ph.D. who was involved in isolating plutonium for the Manhattan Project and co-discovered several radioisotopes.
The most recent NASA nuclear space probe mission was called Cassini. It was launched in 1997 with more plutonium fuel - 72.3 pounds - than on any previous space device. NASA conceded the dangers of a Cassini accident in its "Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission." Although its destination was Saturn, Cassini did not have enough power to get it directly there, so NASA devised a "flyby" or "slingshot maneuver" using the Earth. Cassini was to be sent from space hurtling back at Earth and then, just several hundred miles high, whip around Earth to pick up the additional velocity so it could make it to Saturn.
The NASA EIS for Cassini said that on this "flyby" if an "inadvertent reentry occurred" and Cassini fell back to Earth, it would break up in the Earth's 75-mile high atmosphere (it had no heat shield) and "5 billion of the...world population...could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure" from the plutonium dust that would rain down. In areas seriously contaminated, NASA said actions would include: "Remove and dispose all vegetation, Remove and dispose topsoil. Relocate animals...Ban future agricultural land uses." And for urban environments, "Demolish some or all structures. Relocate affected population permanently." Dr. Gofman estimated the toll from cancer from such a Cassini accident as 950,000 people dead.
RADIOACTIVE DEBRIS?
Conflicting reports have circulated on whether or not there was nuclear material on board Columbia. On 2 February, Sheriff Thomas Kerss from Nacogdoches, Texas told National Public Radio, "There was radioactive material on board" and that retrieval operations would be testing debris for radioactivity.
Dale Vodak, environmental investigator for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, was quoted in the 7 February Orlando Sentinel as saying that americium-242, "used in smoke detectors" had been found. In fact, the isotope used in smoke detectors is americium-241.
Americium-242m, a form of americium-242, however, is under investigation as a possible nuclear fuel for use in space programs, since its critical mass (the minimum amount needed for nuclear fission) is around one percent of that of uranium. Research into this has been carried out at Israel's Ben-Gurion University.
NASA denied that there was nuclear material on board Columbia. However, on February 3rd - just two days after the disaster - NASA presented its budget for its Project Prometheus space nuclear program: a whopping US$3 billion over five years.
Karl Grossman
On April 24, 1964, the GE-built Transit 5BN with a SNAP-9A (SNAP for Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power) system on-board failed to achieve orbit and fell from the sky, disintegrating as it burned in the atmosphere. The 2.1 pounds of Plutonium-238 (an isotope of plutonium 280 times "hotter" with radioactivity than the Plutonium-239 which is used in atomic and hydrogen bombs) in the SNAP-9A dispersed widely over the Earth. A study titled "Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear-Powered Satellites" done by a grouping of European health and radiation protection agencies later reported that "a worldwide soil sampling program carried out in 1970 showed SNAP-9A debris present at all continents and at all latitudes."
Long connecting the SNAP-9A accident and an increase of lung cancer on Earth has been Dr. John Gofman, professor emeritus of medical physics at the University of California at Berkeley, an M.D. and Ph.D. who was involved in isolating plutonium for the Manhattan Project and co-discovered several radioisotopes.
The most recent NASA nuclear space probe mission was called Cassini. It was launched in 1997 with more plutonium fuel - 72.3 pounds - than on any previous space device. NASA conceded the dangers of a Cassini accident in its "Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission." Although its destination was Saturn, Cassini did not have enough power to get it directly there, so NASA devised a "flyby" or "slingshot maneuver" using the Earth. Cassini was to be sent from space hurtling back at Earth and then, just several hundred miles high, whip around Earth to pick up the additional velocity so it could make it to Saturn.
The NASA EIS for Cassini said that on this "flyby" if an "inadvertent reentry occurred" and Cassini fell back to Earth, it would break up in the Earth's 75-mile high atmosphere (it had no heat shield) and "5 billion of the...world population...could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure" from the plutonium dust that would rain down. In areas seriously contaminated, NASA said actions would include: "Remove and dispose all vegetation, Remove and dispose topsoil. Relocate animals...Ban future agricultural land uses." And for urban environments, "Demolish some or all structures. Relocate affected population permanently." Dr. Gofman estimated the toll from cancer from such a Cassini accident as 950,000 people dead.
RADIOACTIVE DEBRIS?
Conflicting reports have circulated on whether or not there was nuclear material on board Columbia. On 2 February, Sheriff Thomas Kerss from Nacogdoches, Texas told National Public Radio, "There was radioactive material on board" and that retrieval operations would be testing debris for radioactivity.
Dale Vodak, environmental investigator for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, was quoted in the 7 February Orlando Sentinel as saying that americium-242, "used in smoke detectors" had been found. In fact, the isotope used in smoke detectors is americium-241.
Americium-242m, a form of americium-242, however, is under investigation as a possible nuclear fuel for use in space programs, since its critical mass (the minimum amount needed for nuclear fission) is around one percent of that of uranium. Research into this has been carried out at Israel's Ben-Gurion University.
NASA denied that there was nuclear material on board Columbia. However, on February 3rd - just two days after the disaster - NASA presented its budget for its Project Prometheus space nuclear program: a whopping US$3 billion over five years.
Karl Grossman