Re: Re[2]: Cassini and "60 Minutes"

["Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>]

At 12:10 PM 10/7/97 -0500, Bill Kolb wrote:
>
>
>Putting aside for the moment that TV magazines are a form of entertainment
and
>are an outlet for indiviudual and media opinion, the question raised on
Cassini
>--but never answered on Radsafe or on "60 Minutes"--is not how safe or
dangerous
>plutonium is but rather how much risk the government is allowed to take with
>citizens.  I believe the dangers of plutonium are well understood and
>exaggerated way out of proportion to other risks.  But to put the question in
>different terms, how would you feel about launching 72 pounds of liquid
Saran or
>concentrated Ebola? 

October 7, 1997
Davis, CA

Ceramic pellets of inert plutonium oxide sintered at 2,000 degrees Celsius
are not chemically reactive as is Saran or infectious as is Ebola! Further
the iridium casing and triple layers of graphite fiber heat shield make the
inert plutonium oxide pellets virtually invulnerable. If exposed, they will
not readily fracture, no less be converted to hazardous airborne inhalable
particles. I can imagine the mechansims of exposure and significant dangers
in an accident involving Saran or Ebola more readily than an accident
involving modern RTG's.

Otto
		*****************************************************
		Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
                [President, Health Physics Society, 1997-1998]
		Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
		     (Street address: Old Davis Road)
		University of California, Davis, CA 95616
		Phone: 916-752-7754     FAX: 916-758-6140
		E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
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