On October 6, 1997, NASA plans to launch the Cassini space probe, carrying 72.3 pounds of deadly plutonium-238 fuel, to power the probe's electrical instruments during its voyage to Saturn. The space probe will ride on top of a Lockheed-Martin built Titan IV rocket (a number of which have exploded in the atmosphere) and will be launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Michio Kaku, a nuclear physics professor at City University of New York, warns that a rocket malfunction within the Earth's atmosphere could cause the "most toxic chemical known to science" to "shower down with a tremendous tragedy for the people of the Earth." Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, notes that plutonium "is so toxic that less than one-millionth of a gram, an invisible particle, is a carcinogenic dose. One pound, if uniformly distributed, could hypothetically induce lung cancer in every person on Earth." Although NASA claims that there is little chance that Cassini's plutonium will contaminate the Earth's atmosphere, there are two high-risk periods in the Cassini mission: the launch and the subsequent Earth flyby.
The odds of Titan IV rocket failure during launch are "between one in 10 and one in 20," says John Pike, head of space policy at the Federation of American Scientists. NASA estimates a one in 900 chance of an accident at launch. Before the 1996 Challenger mission disaster, experts calculated the odds on a launch accident at one in 100,000. In 1993, a Titan IV rocket blew up 101 seconds after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
In addition, NASA plans to send Cassini hurtling back to Earth at 42,300 mph for a "swingby," to give it the velocity to travel to Saturn. The projected time for this event is August 1999, bringing the probe to a height of 312 miles above the Earth's surface. But if a miscalculation (or a collision with a piece of orbiting debris) occurs, the space probe could break up in the Earth's atmosphere, raining plutonium back down on the Earth's surface.
Why play "nuclear roulette" with 72.3 pounds of plutonium?
Resources:
NASA's Cassini Probe Will Play Nuclear Roulette with the Planet; Earth Island Journal, Summer 1997
Space shot with plutonium might turn into big tragedy; Karl Grossman, Scripps Howard News Service.
What you can do:
Write President Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington D.C. 20500. Ask him to cancel the Cassini launch and order NASA to develop non-nuclear power sources for space missions. Contact the MEC or the WEC for a copy of a "pre-fabricated" letter.
Contacts:
Global Response Action, PO Box 7490, Boulder, CO 80306, (303)444-0306, www.globalresponse.org
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, PO Box 90035, Gainesville, FL 32607, (904) 468-3295
Peace Action Education Fund, 1819 H. St. NW, #425, Washington, DC 20006 (202) 862-9740, ext. 3044
Another website with Cassini information:
www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/index.htm
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited