On May 4, 9:55*am, wrote:
Given the desire to use nuclear propulsion for deep space exploration
(i.e. VASIMR, Mars 1986, Mars 1994, etc.), but the danger of
uncontrolled re-entry of radioactive materials ( see Cosmos 954),
maybe all nuclear reactors in LEO should be put there by manned
vehicles, reside on manned platforms, and be manually controllable.
Always having a "man-in-the-loop" provides the same type of additional
safety margin that pilots give to commercial planes.

A thorium reactor is failsafe, unless it lands directly on your office
or home.

However, within the Earth-moon L1 (Selene L1) it's 97% of the time
getting 100% solar illumination, plus half the time a healthy amount
of lunar IR to work with (combined we're talking 100+ TW), not to
mention dipole energy with that moon connected at one end. So, who
who the hell needs an orbiting reactor?

~ BG