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RE: Nukes in Space...
Thanks Ruth -- but I
think that Norm already explained that he wasn't thinking about rocket launches.
The idea he did mention - the elevator to space - is an old one, perhaps best
popularized by the great sci-fi author, Arthur C. Clarke (I believe that the
elevator manufacturer Otis is already hyping this as their long-term goal; see
also http://www.tethers.com/
for more on a similar, more near-term topic ).
Needless to say, its a
far-future type of concept -- perhaps for the 22nd or 23rd centuries (because it
requires almost perfectly defect-free structural materials, with strength
properties close to theoretical values). Moreover, it would not be built
specifically for nuke waste or any other special cargo transport, but for
general Earth-to-GEO transportation of both people &
cargo.
But the idea of
disposing of nuke waste in the Sun is ridiculous for many other
reasons.
Hopefully, by the 22nd
or 23rd century people will smarten up enough to realise that (or maybe not --
maybe Norm will succeed beyond his wildest expectations and people will get more
& more paranoid, and start shipping to space everything even slightly
radioactive -- including all naturally occurring radioactive materials....
rocks, soil, plants, people, the ocean, you name it).
Maybe Norm
can tell us all which of the many different kinds of isotopes in nuclear "waste"
must be disposed of, because they will never-ever have any use for humans.
Failing that, I see no reason to spend gazillions of dollars to dispose of it
irretrievably.
Besides,
even if you could get thousands of tonnes of the stuff into space in perfect
safety, the antis would no doubt tell you that it wouldn't actually go INTO the
sun, but it would vaporise in its super-hot corona or on its surface, and then
be blown out into space along with the solar wind & contaminate the entire
solar system and, eventually, all its Galactic neighbours ! .....quick - get
Sternglass or Bertell to calculate the projected collective dose to all human
& alien species, and calculate a truly astronomical number of deaths based
on LNT........
Jaro
I too am thoroughly sick of this mindless anti-nuke gibberish, but I
can't resist answering this one. A small but significant fraction of
launches intended to go far enough away from the earth that they remain in orbit
don't make it. The probability is orders of magnitude larger than, for
example, any accident to a spent nuclear fuel cask that could cause a
radioactive materials leak or the chance that a truck of spent fuel driving by
your hour gioves you cancer. Note -- I am NOT saying that the probability
of the last two event is zero -- it isn't -- but it's much much less than the
probability that a space shot won't make it into space, and much much much less
than the probability that a space shot won't make it into the sun.
To
those who think this is a great idea: what are you going to say if we actually
start spending zillions of dollars building test equipment to test this idea?
When the tests don't turn out perfect every time? When the tests
fail?
It's just pie in the sky.
Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com