Re: Pu-238 in space

["Dr. Marvin Goldman" <mgoldman@ucdavis.edu>]

>Schoenhofer
>Habichergasse 31/7
>A-1160 Wien
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>
>I followed the "Cassini" discussion on Radsafe. For your information I want
>to tell you that the "Cassini" mission is worth only a few sentences on
>page 10+ in Austrian newspapers. Please note also that one newspaper stated
>that 34 kg of "radioactive U-238" will be on board.....
>
>I know about the use of Pu-238 in space probes. I remember that once one of
>these batteries volatilized upon reentry into the atmosphere. This must
>have been in the sixties. Does anyone know details about this event - for
>instance mass of Pu-238 and date. It might be a striking argument against
>the one used now, that hundreds, thousands or millions of people would die,
>if the Cassini generator would burn up on reentry.
>
>What happens, if plutonium is dispersed by chemical explosions should be
>known from the safety tests performed at various locations in the world,
>exploding nuclear bombs - both done deliberately (Marshall Islands,
>Maralinga, Mururoa) and accidentally during air plane crashes (Palomares,
>Thule etc.)
>
>Franz

In 1964  a SNAP 9-A satellite had an aborted reentry and vaporized 17 kCi
of Pu-238 mainly over the Indian Ocean.  Global Pu from all atmospheric
weapons tests was about 320 kCi through the test ban treaty of 1963; about
1 kCi is still up there.

Many estimates of the doses from these  releases have been perfomed,
including a detailed series in the UNSCEAR reports (actually that's why
there were begun) and in Merril Eisenbud's "Environmental Radioactivity"
mgoldman@ucdavis.edu