{"id":41958,"date":"2011-07-21T11:32:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T15:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=41958"},"modified":"2011-07-21T13:33:15","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T17:33:15","slug":"what-could-end-the-space-program-a-nuclear-disaster-overhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/environment\/what-could-end-the-space-program-a-nuclear-disaster-overhead\/","title":{"rendered":"What Could End the Space Program? A Nuclear Disaster Overhead"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Karl Grossman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What is NASA\u2019s future now that Atlantis has landed and the shuttle program is over? If NASA persists in using nuclear power in space, the agency\u2019s future is threatened.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's<\/a>
Artist's concept of Juno in orbit around Jupiter. A much more comforting image than a plutonium disaster a mile above the Earth's surface. Photo: NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Between November 25 and December 15 NASA plans to launch for use on Mars a rover fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium, more plutonium than ever used on a rover. The mission has a huge cost: $2.5 billion. But if there is an accident before the rover is well on its way to Mars, and plutonium is released on Earth, its cost stands to be yet more gargantuan.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Final Environmental Impact Statement for what it calls its Mars Science Laboratory Mission says that if plutonium is released on Earth, the cost could be as high as $1.5 billion to decontaminate each square mile of \u201cmixed-use urban areas\u201d impacted.<\/p>\n

What\u2018s the probability of an accident releasing plutonium? The NASA document says \u201cthe probability of an accident with a release of plutonium\u201d is 1-in-220 \u201coverall.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you knew your chance of not surviving an airplane flight — or just a drive in a car — was 1 in 220, would you take that trip?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And is this enormous risk necessary? In two weeks, there\u2019ll be a NASA mission demonstrating a clear alternative to atomic energy in space: solar power.<\/p>\n

On August 5, NASA plans to launch a solar-powered space probe it\u2019s named Juno to Jupiter. There\u2019s no atomic energy involved, although NASA for decades has insisted that nuclear power is necessary for space devices beyond the orbit of Mars. With Juno, NASA will be showing it had that wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuno will provide answers to critical science questions about Jupiter, as well as key information that will dramatically enhance present theories about the early formation of our own solar system,\u201d says NASA on its website. \u201cIn 2016, the spinning, solar-powered Juno spacecraft will reach Jupiter.\u201d It will be equipped with \u201cinstruments that can sense the hidden world beneath Jupiter\u2019s colorful clouds\u201d and make 33 passes of Jupiter.<\/p>\n

As notes Aviation Week and Space Technology: \u201cThe unique spacecraft will set a record by running on solar power rather than nuclear radioisotope thermoelectric generators previously used to operate spacecraft that far from the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mars rover to be launched, named Curiosity by NASA, will be equipped with these radioisotope thermoelectric generators using plutonium, the deadliest radioactive substance.<\/p>\n

Juno, a large craft -\u00ad 66-feet wide \u00ad- will be powered by solar panels built by a Boeing subsidiary, Spectrolab. The panels can convert 28 percent of the sunlight that reaches them to electricity. They\u2019ll also produce heat to keep Juno\u2019s instruments warm. This mission\u2019s cost is $1.1 billion.<\/p>\n

In fact, Juno is not a wholly unique spacecraft. In 2004, the European Space Agency launched a space probe called Rosetta that is also solar-powered. Its mission is to orbit and land on a comet -\u00ad beyond the orbit of Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there have been major developments in \u201csolar sails\u201d to propel spacecraft. Last year, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched its Ikaros spacecraft with solar sails taking it to Venus. In January, NASA itself launched its NanoSail-D spacecraft. The Planetary Society has been developing several spacecraft that will take advantage of photons emitted by the Sun to travel through the vacuum of space.<\/p>\n

At no point will Juno (or the other solar spacecrafts) be a threat to life on Earth. This includes Juno posing no danger when in 2013 it makes a flyby of Earth. Such flybys making use of Earth\u2019s gravity to increase a spacecraft\u2019s velocity have constituted dangerous maneuvers when in recent years they\u2019ve involved plutonium-powered space probes such as NASA\u2019s Galileo and Cassini probes.<\/p>\n

Curiosity is a return to nuclear danger.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Final Environmental Impact statement admits that a large swath of Earth could be impacted by plutonium in an accident involving it. The document\u2019s section on \u201cImpacts of Radiological Releases\u201d says \u201cthe affected environment\u201d could include \u201cthe regional area near the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the global area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLaunch area accidents would initially release material into the regional area, defined\u2026to be within \u202662 miles of the launch pad,\u201d says the document. This is an area from Cape Canaveral west to Orlando.<\/p>\n

But \u201csince some of the accidents result in the release of very fine particles less than a micron in diameter, a portion of such releases could be transported beyond\u202662 miles,\u201d it goes on. These particles could become \u201cwell-mixed in the troposphere\u201d — the atmosphere five to nine miles high — \u201cand have been assumed to potentially affect persons living within a latitude band from approximately 23-degrees north to 30-degrees north.\u201d That\u2019s a swath through the Caribbean, across North Africa and the Mideast, then India and China Hawaii and other Pacific islands, and Mexico and southern Texas.<\/p>\n

Then, as the rocket carrying Curiosity up gains altitude, the impacts of an accident in which plutonium is released would be even broader. The plutonium could affect people \u201canywhere between 28-degrees north and 28-degrees south latitude,\u201d says the NASA document. That\u2019s a band around the mid-section of the Earth including much of South America, Africa and Australia.<\/p>\n

Dr. Helen Caldicott, president emeritus of Physicians for Social Responsibility, has long emphasized that a pound of plutonium if uniformly distributed could hypothetically give a fatal dose of lung cancer to every person on Earth. A pound, even 10.6 pounds, could never be that uniformly distributed, of course. But an accident in which plutonium is released by a space device as tiny particles falling to Earth maximizes its lethality. A millionth of a gram of plutonium can be a fatal dose. The pathway of greatest concern is the breathing in plutonium particle.<\/p>\n

As the NASA Environmental Impact Statement puts it: \u201cParticles smaller than about 5 microns would be transported to and remain in the trachea, bronchi, or deep lung regions.\u201d The plutonium particles \u201cwould continuously irradiate lung tissue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA small fraction would be transported over time directly to the blood or to lymph nodes and then to the blood,\u201d it continues. Once plutonium \u201chas entered the blood via ingestion or inhalation, it would circulate and be deposited primarily in the liver and skeletal system.\u201d Also, says the document, some of the plutonium would migrate to the testes or ovaries.<\/p>\n

The cost of decontamination of areas affected by the plutonium could be, according to the NASA statement, $267 million for each square mile of farmland, $478 million for each square mile of forests and $1.5 billion for each square mile of \u201cmixed-use urban areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NASA document lists \u201csecondary social costs associated with the decontamination and mitigation activities\u201d as: \u201cTemporary or longer term relocation of residents; temporary or longer term loss of employment; destruction or quarantine of agricultural products including citrus crops; land use restrictions which could affect real estate values, tourism and recreational activities; restriction or bands on commercial fishing; and public health effects and medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to why the use of a plutonium-powered rover on Mars –\u00ad considering that NASA has successfully used solar-powered rovers on Mars — the NASA Environmental Impact Statement says that a \u201csolar-powered rover\u2026would not be capable of operating over the full range of scientifically desirable landing site latitudes\u201d on this mission.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more to it. For many decades there has been a marriage of nuclear power and space at NASA. The use of nuclear power on space missions has been heavily promoted by the U.S. Department of Energy and its predecessor agency, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and the many DOE (previously AEC) national laboratories including Los Alamos and Oak Ridge. This provides work for these government entities. Also, the manufacturers of nuclear-powered space devices\u00adGeneral Electric was a pioneers in this\u00adhave pushed their products. Further, NAS has sought to coordinate its activities with the U.S. military. The military for decades has planned for the deployment of nuclear-powered weapons in space.<\/p>\n

Personifying the NASA-military connection now is NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former NASA astronaut and Marine Corps major general. Appointed by President Barack Obama, he is a booster of radioisotope thermoelectric generators as well as rockets using nuclear power for propulsion. The U.S. has spent billions of dollars through the years on such rockets but none have ever taken off and the programs have all ended up cancelled largely out of concern about a nuclear-powered rocket blowing up on launch or falling back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Accidents have happened in the U.S. space nuclear program. Of the 26 space missions that have used plutonium which are listed in the NASA Environmental Impact Statement for the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, three underwent accident causing, admits the document.<\/p>\n

The worst occurred in 1964 and involved, it notes, the SNAP-9A plutonium system aboard a satellite that failed to achieve orbit and dropped to Earth, disintegrating as it fell. The 2.1 pounds of plutonium fuel dispersed widely over the Earth and Dr. John Gofman, professor of medical physics at the University of California at Berkeley, long linked this accident to an increase in global lung cancer. With the SNAP-9A accident, NASA switched to solar energy on satellites. Now all satellites\u00adand the International Space Station\u00adare solar-powered.<\/p>\n

There was a near-miss involving a nuclear disaster and a space shuttle. The ill-fated Challenger\u2019s next mission in 1986 was to loft a plutonium-powered space probe.
\nThe NASA Environmental Impact Statement includes comments from people and organizations some highly critical of a plutonium-powered Mars Science Laboratory Mission.<\/p>\n

Leah Karpen of Asheville, North Carolina says: \u201cEvery expansion of plutonium research, development and transportation of this deadly material increases the risk of nuclear accident or theft. In addition, plutonium production is expensive and diverts resources from the more important social needs of our society today, and in the future.\u201d She urges NASA \u201cto reconsider the use of nuclear\u201d and go with solar instead.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Idaho-based Snake River Alliance, calls on NASA and the Department of Energy to \u201ctake this opportunity to move space exploration in a sustainable direction with regard to power. Using solar rather than nuclear to power the Mars Science Laboratory Mission would keep the U.S. safe, advance energy technologies that are cleaner and more secure, be more fiscally responsible, and set a responsible example to other countries as they make decisions about their energy future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ace Hoffman of Carlsbad, California speaks of \u201ctoday\u2019s nuclear NASA\u201d and a \u201cclosed society of dangerous, closed-minded \u2018scientists\u2019 who are hoodwinking the American public and who are guilty of premeditated random murder.\u201d He adds: \u201cThe media has a duty to learn the truth rather than parrot NASA\u2019s blanketly-false assertions.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA, in response to the criticisms, repeatedly states in the document: \u201cNASA and the DOE take very seriously the possibility that an action they take could potentially result in harm to humans or the environment. Therefore, both agencies maintain vigorous processes to reduce the potential for such events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Involved in challenging the mission is the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org<\/a>). Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Maine-based organization, says that \u201cNASA sadly appears committed to maintaining their dangerous alliance with the nuclear industry. Both entities view space as a new market for the deadly plutonium fuel.\u201d Says Gagnon: \u201cThe taxpayers are being asked once again to pay for nuclear missions that could endanger the life of all the people on the planet\u2026Have we not learned anything from Chernobyl and Fukushima? We don\u2019t need to be launching nukes into space. It\u2019s not a gamble we can afford to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the return of Atlantis and end of the shuttle program, there are concerns about this being the \u201cend\u201d of the U.S. space program.<\/p>\n

An accident if NASA continues to insist on mixing atomic energy and space -\u00ad a nuclear disaster above our heads -\u00ad that, indeed, could end the space program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karl Grossman What is NASA\u2019s future now that Atlantis has landed and the shuttle program is over? If NASA persists in using nuclear power in space, the agency\u2019s future is threatened. Between November 25 and December 15 NASA plans to launch for use on Mars a rover fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium, more … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[583],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}