From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsovax!hamilton Newsgroups: net.space Title: Re: Cosmos 1402 - (nf) Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.1315 Posted: Mon Jan 10 12:46:55 1983 Received: Fri Jan 14 03:10:20 1983 #R:eagle:-70700:uicsovax:12600007:000:2658 uicsovax!hamilton Jan 10 09:44:00 1983 don't give the russians all the credit. an item from the 7 Jan 83 Science: "The Defense Dept's plan to build a new generation of compact nuclear reactors to power laser battle stations and other military satellites [Science, 17 Dec 81, p1199] has an ominous history. In 1964, a US nuclear- powered satellite burned on reentry and contaminated the atmosphere with plutonium. Unlike the breakup of a Soviet nuclear satellite over Canada in 1978, the US accident received almost no publicity at the time.... The incident began on 21 Apr 64 when a Transit navigational satellite was launched from Vandenburg AFB in California. On board was a power supply known as SNAP-9A, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that was fueled with about 1 kilogram of Pu-238. The rocket's engines failed in mid-flight, and the satellite and its lethal payload came crashing back into the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. ... In 1964, search teams using sophisticated air sampling techniques combed the crash site and subsequently decided the satellite had completely burned up during reentry and that the plutonium had dispersed as a fine dust in the atmosphere [Science, 10 Nov 67, p769]. Over the years, the plutonium slowly worked its way down to the surface of the earth, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. By 1970 about 95% of the SNAP plutonium had settled out of the atmosphere. The contamination was not unprecedented but it was quite large. During the days of atmospheric nuclear testing, some plutonium had spread throughout the atmosphere. In contrast, the US satellite fiasco was estimated to have resulted in a three-fold increase of Pu-238 contamination [Nature, 16 Feb 73]. ... After the SNAP-9A accident, two other misfortunes befell the US space nuclear power program. In neither case was plutonium released into the atmosphere. The first occurred in May 1968 when a Nimbus weather satellite failed to achieve orbit and plunged into the Santa Barbara Channel off California. Its plutonium power pack, known as SNAP-19, was recovered intact. The final accident occurred in Apr 1970 when the Apollo 13 moon-landing mission was aborted because of an onboard fire. The command module and the three astronauts were successfully picked up. The lunar lander, however, plunged to the floor of the Pacific Ocean and could not be found. It is estimated that its plutonium fuel pack, known as SNAP-27, will remain intact for about 860 years. -- William J. Broad" (parenthetically, wjb is not my favorite science writer; fortunately, the new york times is taking him...) wayne ({decvax,ucbvax,harpo}!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsovax!)hamilton