Re: Nuclear-powered spacecraft plan feared

["Richard L. Hess" <lists@richardhess.com>]

I don't know much about it, but I believe Hydrazine is used as the fuel for 

the on-board maneuvering rockets. My understanding is that it's nasty stuff.



The people who make it do NOT publish the MSDS on their Web site, but two 

pages provide some insight into the chemical:

http://www.hydrazine.com/propellants/Care.asp

http://www.hydrazine.com/propellants/911.asp



However, unless there was still a sealed tank of this, I would suspect it 

all to dissipate during the 200,000 foot free-fall.



Does anyone know if it bonds to metal surfaces and causes them to become 

toxic? It's interesting to note that it's shipped in 55Gal non-returnable 

STAINLESS STEEL drums.



Richard





At 04:26 PM 2/6/2003 -0500, Susan L Gawarecki wrote:

>I heard several announcements on NPR that there were NO radiological

>concerns with the debris, only chemical.  The maneuvering propellants

>are apparently caustic, and if mixed they react quite violently.  There

>were also some minor explosives on board, such as explosive bolts.



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