Re: Newspaper article on Plutonium

[StevenFrey@aol.com]

Another atmospheric event involving Pu-238 occurred during the 1970 Apollo 13
mission. The mission carried a sizeable quantity of the radionuclide (a
hundred pounds or more) to power instrumentation intended to be left on the
lunar surface. Due to the in-flight emergency, the Pu-238 never made it to
the lunar surface. It instead returned to Earth still aboard the Lunar Module
whereupon it entered the atmosphere at unchecked  velocity. Presumably some
or all of the plutonium source burned up and was released to the atmosphere.
Yet no increase in stochastic effects have ever been detected or reported
among the peoples of the world from this event to my knowledge. So much for
"deadly" Cassini mission!