If there's one good justifiable use for nuclear energy, it's to explore deep
space. I personally feel the use of nuclear energy for space exploration can
be safe. There's good reason though to question whether it actually will be
used safely.
Safe to me would be if, the chances of a disaster were in the range of the
chances of Earth being hit by a medium sized astroid. Which is, about one in
a million. And, the worst case scenerio has to be something that Earth can
recover from.
Based on what I've found out so far, there's about a one in a million chance of
1500 people suffering as a result of the Cassini mission. I'm willing to fly
in an airliner, which has about the same chance of crashing into a populated
area.
But, if people want to protest Cassini, so be it. It'll keep NASA on their
toes.
Andy Robert Steinberg wrote:
>IMHO, using nuclear power for space exploration is one of the best possible
>uses
>for the stuff, far better than using it for bombs on Earth. How else can we
>power
>our space probes?
>
>Peace through Reason wrote:
>>
>> October 15, 1997
>>
>> And so, what now? How do we convince out-of-control agencies there
>> must be no more launches of plutonium into space ... ? And can we
>> convince NASA to change the fly-by to another planet? Is it
>> technically feasible?
>>