Topic awaiting preservation: Let's make some plutonium (Page 1 of 1)

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The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 - a highly radioactive substance valued as a power source - since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. It is hot enough to melt plastic and so dangerous that a speck can cause cancer.

Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds, or 150 kilograms, over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The program could cost $1.5 billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste.

Project managers say that most if not all of the new plutonium is intended for secret missions and declined to divulge any details.

"The real reason we're starting production is for national security," Timothy Frazier, head of radioisotope power systems at the Department of Energy, said at the end of a recent interview.

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unbelievable.

edit: I guess a link to the source might come in handy if anyone wanted to read the whole thing. Not that any of you actually need it, and are more than capable, but it is kind of nice.

And here is the NYT version.

(Edited by Ramasax on 06-27-2005 08:37)

Sick sick world.
When a country has the mean to do great things, all they find to do is to sharpen the knife they have between the teeth.

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Plutonium-238 is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators to provide electricity for space probes that venture too far from the sun to use solar power, such as the Cassini and Galileo probes.

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From The Element Plutonium

Interesting. I wonder what they are planning to use the isotope for?

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"The real reason we're starting production is for national security,"

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My arse!
This is just so disgusting I just feel like going home straight away and sleep for a week, till I don't feel sick anymore. I just wish I could stick this crap up their sh**er.

Hmmm...I found this, searching for potiential military uses - The Case Against the Plutonium Space Race

Some pretty interesting information.

As I understand it, Plutionium 238 really doesn't have any use as an actual nuclear weapon - much to dangerous. But as a power supply for Star Wars type weapons, it does have a use, apparently, especially if those platforms are based in space.

What is Mr. Bush up to?

This is very, very insteresting!!

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Claiming ownership of the Moon's resources
Another reason for the Bush administration's interest in space could be that the extended human
presence on the Moon would enable the United States to harness the abundant resources of the Moon
and planets. Scientists have discovered valuable resources on the Moon. Helium-3, a scarce isotope of
normal Helium, is a fuel that is seen as a replacement for the dwindling supply of fossil fuels back here
on Earth via nuclear fusion. Helium-3 is rare on Earth but abundant on the Moon.
It is estimated that the Moon contains 1 million tons of Helium-3, enough to power the Earth for
thousands of years.vii It has been estimated that one metric ton of Helium-3 could be worth nearly $1.5
billion - more than 120 times the value of gold.
In a New York Times article of 1995, science writer Lawrence Joseph said that "If we ignore the potential
of this remarkable fuel; the nation could slip behind in the race for control of the global economy".
Joseph asks, "Will the Moon become the Persian Gulf of the 21st Century?" meaning that if the US can
get a monopoly on Helium-3 it wouldn't have to worry about the Gulf States and their oil.
The US could tell the world what the price of energy would be - or deny them its accessibility.

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From Bush's space policy: Reasons for concern

(Edited by WebShaman on 06-27-2005 15:43)

Interesting reading WS, esp. that first article with reference to the failed orbit acquisition of the Pu-238 powered satellite back in the sixties. That such a small amount of anything could be undoubtably blamed for an increase in global lung-cancer, and that it could be detected on "all continents, at all latitudes" in 1970 (having had time to spread) just horrifies me - and 1/1000 g inhaled is lethal?!?

Even supposing the (secret) uses for this material are legitimate, what constitutes 'legitimate use' when even a minor, not-so-unlikely mishap of the nuclear space race could potentially wipe out 40 million people? To think of all the scares of previous decades over the unlikely threat of nuclear war, and now it's lethal radio-toxic dust particles we've got to fear.

What happened to the good old days, when the bad guy was a crazed despot across the ocean with a bunch of badly-glued fighter planes and a passion for astrologically-dictated war strategy - now the real threat is in the detail somewhere between progress and ambition, where millions could die for nothing more than the hope of a pretty picture or two of our neighbouring planets...

Q: What the hell can I do about it?

A: Get started on that overstuffed beer-cooler before the sky comes crashing down.

*heads back to his cell, looking ever-more-worriedly skyward*

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz.....

Interesting links WS, thanks.

Whatever they have planned, the M.I. complex is the one who seems to stand to gain, and, as always, we stand to lose.

For anyone interested, here is the official Environment Impact Statement for the project.

Ramasax