Plutonium Blurb

I'd welcome an accident where they decided to evacuate part of Florida.
First, I know there is really nothing to worry about.
Second, as a 5th generation Fl native, I want to see all those people
go.

This is just anti-nuke hysteria from people who are ignorant.

Mike Chan wrote:


In the Titan 4B / Cassini launch, the greater immediate hazard from an
on pad or early launch explosion would have been from the nitrogen
tetroxide rather than the plutonium.

I may be misremembering this, but ISTR reading after an NRO T4B blew up
shortly after leaving the Cape that the launch rules said "don't go if
there's a breeze toward land", just because of the nitrogen tetroxide +
hydrazine hazard. Dunno if the same rule would be invoked for an RTG
launch.

I may be misremembering this, but ISTR reading after an NRO T4B blew up
shortly after leaving the Cape that the launch rules said "don't go if
there's a breeze toward land", just because of the nitrogen tetroxide +
hydrazine hazard.

Amazingly enough, Google found it. (It was a T4A, not B):

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9808/1...t.explodes.02/

U.S. spy satellite lost as rocket self-destructs
Titan rocket explodes
Cause of Cape Canaveral launch mishap unknown
August 12, 1998
Web posted at: 12:51 p.m. EDT (1651 GMT)
[EXCERPT]

"Fumes from the toxic rocket fuel -- resembling an orange
donut -- wafted out to sea and dispersed within a half-hour.
Under launch rules, the wind must be blowing out to sea in
order for a Titan 4 to lift off."

Allen Thomson wrote:
I may be misremembering this, but ISTR reading after an NRO T4B blew up
shortly after leaving the Cape that the launch rules said "don't go if
there's a breeze toward land", just because of the nitrogen tetroxide +
hydrazine hazard.

Amazingly enough, Google found it. (It was a T4A, not B):

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9808/1...t.explodes.02/

U.S. spy satellite lost as rocket self-destructs
Titan rocket explodes
Cause of Cape Canaveral launch mishap unknown
August 12, 1998
Web posted at: 12:51 p.m. EDT (1651 GMT)
[EXCERPT]

"Fumes from the toxic rocket fuel -- resembling an orange
donut -- wafted out to sea and dispersed within a half-hour.
Under launch rules, the wind must be blowing out to sea in
order for a Titan 4 to lift off."

That would have been a tough rule to meet, since Florida has a
daily low altitude seabreeze coming off the Atlantic during most
of the year. I wonder if the rule only applied to high altitude
winds?

- Ed Kyle

Ed Kyle wrote:


That would have been a tough rule to meet, since Florida has a
daily low altitude seabreeze coming off the Atlantic during most
of the year. I wonder if the rule only applied to high altitude
winds?

I don't know the details of the rule, though one would think lowish
levels would be more important for N204/hydrazine releases.

See http://www.uswx.com/us/stn/?code=d&n=1000&stn=KTTS for a run of
wind directions. Note that the Dir, Spd and Unit column labels seem to
displaced one column to the right of where they should be.

(Checking WeatherBug just now, the wind at the Shuttle facility is 10
mph from the SSW.)

Ed Kyle ) wrote:
: Heads up Florida! He has a point about how distruptive
: a launch failure could be in terms of evacuations, etc.

: "http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN45120405.htm"

There is something just to apropos in sending plutonium to Pluto!

Eric

: - Ed Kyle

How, pray tell, would you operate a spacecraft that is at 39.5 times the
Earth's distance to the Sun? If you recall, the amount of sunlight
available decreases by the inverse square of the object's distance to
the Sun. So at Pluto there would only be .064% percent as much sunlight
as there is at Earth's distance from the Sun.

I think that as long as the RTG's are properly designed they are
perfectly safe for use on spacecraft.

Since the Pu is in a ceramic, contained within a housing, cigarettes are
going to be much more deadly to your average Floridian than an RTG
falling out of the sky.

Jeffrey

jonathan wrote:
"Ed Kyle" wrote in message
oups.com...
Heads up Florida! He has a point about how distruptive
a launch failure could be in terms of evacuations, etc.


"http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN4512040
5.htm"


Yep, they've decided to power their future spacecraft with nuclear
fuel. Ya know, the Space Solar Power program was meant to
also be a generic source for powering spacecraft, stations and habitats
of all kinds. SSP was meant to provide the most basic infrastructure
needed to colonize and explore space.

They've chosen the easy route, the one that won't build a long
term infrastructure. This is the same mistake made by the Apollo
program. A one shot deal, no meaningful infrastructure.




- Ed Kyle

Scott Lowther wrote:

Hmm. Lessee: "Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University
of New York/College at Old Westbury..."


He's persistent, if nothing else: http://tinyurl.com/89l78

Do they still test RTG casings with tank guns? I saw a picture of a
test once, with an M1 firing into the iridium/carbon panel the cases
are built from.

On 4 Dec 2005 19:54:12 -0800, "Ed Kyle" wrote:

but what are the locals going to do?
They are going to beat it, that's what, hurricane evacuation
style, abandoning their cars roadside when the gas stations
run out as usual, etc.. A few will die during the evacuation, as
they usally do, from accidents or fistfights or whatever.

Funny, none of that happened after Three Mile Island, and that was
right after the "China Syndrome" anti-nuke propaganda, and during a
far more deadly threat.

I think most Brevardians will say "oh well, if its gonna get me, its
gonna get me." Floridians are a laid-back bunch, like New Orleans,
most people don't bother to evacuate for hurricanes and that's after
days of doom-and-gloom fear-mongering by the media and weather
forecasters saying "80% chance its gonna hit you." New Horizons won't
have that. There will be the usual news blurb about the RTG and the
usual 15-second news bit about the inevitable protesters, followed by
the newsgeek saying "but NASA says there's only once chance in 18
million" and so Joe Sixpack will ignore New Horizons. If it does blow,
it will be over before Joe Sixpack can get up and go anyway.

Brian