Despite Solar Options, NASA-Nuclear Alliance Continues Plutonium-Powered Missions

Source: Truthout
Date: Wednesday 10 August 2011
by: Karl Grossman

What is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) future now that Atlantis has landed and the shuttle program is over? If NASA persists in using nuclear power in space, the agency's future is threatened.

Between November 25 and December 15, 2011, NASA plans to launch for use on Mars a rover fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium, more plutonium than ever used on a rover.

The mission has a huge cost: $2.5 billion.

But if there is an accident before the rover is well on its way to Mars and plutonium is released on Earth, its cost stands to be yet more gargantuan.

NASA's final environmental impact statement for what it calls its Mars Science Laboratory mission says that if plutonium is released on Earth, the cost could be as high as $1.5 billion to decontaminate each square mile of "mixed-use urban areas" impacted.

What's the probability of an accident releasing plutonium? The NASA document says, "the probability of an accident with a release of plutonium" is 1 in 220 "overall."
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