Urban legends - plutonium in exploded rocket

["Pickett, Bruce D" <Bruce.Pickett@PSS.Boeing.com>]

RADSAFE,
I just stumbled across the following 3 items which were posted a couple months ago on the Urban Legends bulletin board at http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/ . The first one is the original posting, and the other two are responses to the first.

Bruce Pickett
bruce.d.pickett@boeing.com


#1  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      Plutonium in exploded rocket? 
      Written by Jeroen on Tue Sep 1 17:40:44 1998 GMT 

      Hi,

      I got this message from someone who wants to know if it's a hoax. I'm sure it is but I don't
      have many arguments to back it up. Does anyone know anything about this? 

      ------------

      I apologize in the first place for this intrusion. You will never hear from me again and I will
      delete your email addresses once I have written this. I cannot, as you will understand, reveal
      my name or my sources name. I also do not have all the succinct details of the following
      planetary tragedy. But what has happened at NASA's hands should have the world
      outraged. My source is the project manager at NASA who oversaw the Titan IV-A rocket
      that exploded on Aug 12th. 

      This Titan Rocket mission carried a top secret spy satellite. The spy satellite contained a
      plutonium power pack, which has numerous plutonium pellets. These power packs have
      been launched successfully in the past, under the rightful protests of environmental groups,
      who feared an accident during takeoff would cause a nuclear disaster. 

      Well this disaster was harvested on Aug 12th. 

      Reading the articles about the accident you will see that NASA officials warn locals "not to
      touch the debris that fell to earth because the fuel used in the rocket could be toxic." You will
      also see that all reporters and observants were "quickly evacuated from the site". They were
      not in danger from falling debris, but from fresh radiation. You will also see that after the
      initial explosion NASA initiated a second explosion to "break up the debris to protect those
      on the ground". There was no one in the vicinity of where the debris landed. The second
      explosion was to DESTROY THE PLUTONIUM PACK SO IT WOULD NEVER BE
      FOUND. 

      Last internal reports show the radiation from this accident covering the U.S. east coast and
      approaching the shores of africa, but by now it may have far exceeded these boundaries. 

      It is by far the most harmful nuclear accident in our nations history. Please Forward this
      message to every environtal group you can, and everyone else. Get his message out to
      everyone. Read the newspaper accounts from that day. Take notice of all the warnings and
      things that they would never normally say if there was an accident. 

      They mention that there was no radioactive elements in the missle. WHY in God's name
      would they say that if there wasn't. Do you recall them ever saying that in any other
      accident?? 

      This is the truth, albeit hard to believe. 

#2  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      Re: Plutonium in exploded rocket? 
      Written by Vinz on Tue Sep 1 21:30:18 1998 GMT 

      Well, first of all there would be no reason to use plutonium to power a satellite in orbit
      around earth. Solar panels can do the job just as easily without the danger associated with
      plutonium. The only reason to use plutonium is if the spacecraft was being sent to the outer
      planets, where solar power would be insufficent to power the vehicle, like the Cassini probe.
      The message makes it seem that the reason NASA didn't want people touching the debris is
      because of radiation. Rocket fuel is extremely nasty and dangerous stuff, not the kind of thing
      you want to play with. 

      It is also standard practice to self destruct a malfunctioning rocket. Just because there was
      already an explosion doesn't necessarily mean the rocket was destroyed. It could go out of
      control and head back towards land. 

      Besides, it was a spy satellite, probably packed with secret technology. Blowing the thing up
      ensures no sensitive equipment would be lost at sea and possibly found later on. Lastly, the
      "US east coast" is home to an awful lot of people. High levels of radiation would not go
      unnoticed. (I should know. I live in Florida about two hundred miles from the Cape and the
      site of the explosion and I'm feeling fine) Hope this helps.

#3  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      It happened in the early 60's 
      Written by rurp2 on Sat Oct 31 14:49:12 1998 GMT 

      Yes it's true. A rocket launched by NASA during the formative years of the "space race" did
      explode while carrying a highly radio active payload. The rocket malfunctioned and
      exploded high in the atmosphere, but the radio active payload was not destroyed, it was
      pulverised and then distributed world-wide via upper atmousphere winds. It is a firmly held
      scientific belief that every living organizm on the planet breathed (or absorbed) radio active
      dust from that explosion. Check with NASA, they don't deny it. 
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html