Nuclear Reactors to Propel Rockets into Space; Will Leave Waste Floating

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This is another attempt to justify the continued production and utilization of uranium, and pressuring the public to build more nuclear plants and develop more radioactive fuels out of waste fuels instead of immobilizing the waste and storing it.

Most of the money for the construction of new nuclear plants is in the Energy Bill. http://energy.senate.gov/legislation/energybill2003/nuclear_matters.pdf


Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program-
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclearspace-03p.html

Boeing has selected Dr. Joe Mills to lead the company's effort on the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) program, part of a NASA initiative to develop nuclear power and electric propulsion technologies to revolutionize space exploration.

The JIMO Phase A contract is valued at $6 million, with a $5 million option for further work, and runs through fall 2003. Led in this phase by Boeing Phantom Works, the company's advanced R&D unit, the JIMO team will study technology options for the reactor, power conversion, electric propulsion and other subsystems of the JIMO spacecraft meant to explore the Jovian moons of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

NASA currently plans to select an industry prime contractor in fall 2004 to work with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., to develop, launch and operate the spacecraft. The proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter has been identified as the first space science mission to potentially incorporate this new capability.

Mission Fact Sheet:
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/JIMO.pdf

How will the system be used?:
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/fissiontech.pdf

Claims of nuclear space saftey:
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/fissiontechsafety.pdf


Here's an excerpt from the NuclearSpace website about the system. http://www.nuclearspace.com/use_in_space.htm

NASA Plans to Develop a Space Nuclear Reactor Power System

NASA, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy are currently working together to develop the technology base for Space Nuclear Reactor Power. This program will develop and demonstrate in ground tests the technology required for space reactor power systems from tens of kilowatts to hundreds of kilowatts.

The SP-100 reactor power system is designed to be launched radioactively cold. After mission completion, the reactor will be shut down and stored in space for hundreds of years to ensure fission products decay to safe levels. In the event of accidental reentry, the reactor system will enter intact and remain subcritical so that fission products will no longer be generated or released.

The reactor can be built using different forms of uranium fuel (see Energy Bill now in conference- http://energy.senate.gov/ http://energy.senate.gov/legislation/energybill2003/CMTitleIV.pdf
During the fusion process the neutron strikes a uranium atom, causing it to release energy as it splits into smaller atoms.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, a more heavily instrumented craft traveling farther from the Sun, would power its ion thrusters with a nuclear fission reactor and a system for converting the reactor's heat to electricity. This could give the craft more than 100 times as
much power as a non-fission system of comparable weight.


An effort to roll back the system:

WASHINGTON, DC, July 28, 2003 (ENS) - The House turned back an effort Friday to fully fund the Bush administration's 2004 request for the Superfund program, opting not to divert $115 million from an initiative to develop nuclear powered space flight in order to fund additional efforts to clean up hazardous waste sites.

Aerospace giants Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman have each been awarded multimillion dollar contracts to develop design studies for the orbiter.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-28-10.asp


New Thread on the Energy Bill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=393201

:nuke:

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1. JOVIAN SPACE NEWS SERVICE- Interplanetary Edition

Serving the Jovian moons of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Space Travelers Come in Peace; Turned Back, Nonetheless.

(Europa) Today marked two historic firsts for Europa. Space travelers from a distant planet, believed by many to be uninhabitable because of its toxic atmosphere, locked into our planet's orbit and were quickly intercepted by our interplanetary space patrol.

The travelers are apparently the first-ever recorded visitors to Europa from a planet outside of our tri-planet system.

The travelers reportedly communicate by projecting the air into the other's orfices in modulated waves. All attempts by the patrol to connect with their inner voice have encountered only static and clutter, making communication difficult if not impossible.

The interplanetary patrol also encountered another first in their encounter with the travelers which was met with much alarm as the patrol reported their discovery to the interplanetary council.

Apparently, the traveler's space craft is powered, in part, by a nuclear reactor system. According to Europan law, concentrated radioactive devices have been extremely prohibited since the planet lost its natural atmosphere from the misuse of these materials.

The travelers were regrettably forced out of orbit and are assumed to be returning to their home planet, perhaps to perish in the toxic haze which covers the dying home. :eyes:

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2. Articles

Nuclear Power In Space And The Impact On Earth's Ecosystem-

Included in NASA plans are the nuclear rocket to Mars; a new generation of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) for interplanetary missions; nuclear-powered robotic Mars rovers to be launched in 2003 and 2009. Ultimately NASA envisions mining colonies on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids that would be powered by nuclear reactors.

Since the 1960s there have been eight space nuclear power accidents by the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, several of which released deadly plutonium into the Earth's atmosphere. In April, 1964 a U.S. military satellite with 2.1 pounds of plutonium-238 on-board fell back to Earth and burned up as it hit the atmosphere spreading the toxic plutonium globally as dust to be ingested by the people of the planet. In 1997 NASA launched the Cassini space probe carrying 72 pounds of plutonium that fortunately did not experience failure. If it had, hundreds of thousands of people around the world could have been contaminated.

Beyond accidents impacting the planet, the space nuclear production process at the DoE labs will lead to significant numbers of workers and communities being contaminated. Historically DoE has a bad track record when it comes to protecting workers and local water systems from radioactive contaminants.

During the Cassini RTG fabrication process at Los Alamos 244 cases of worker contamination were reported to the DoE.

Critics of NASA have long stated that in addition to potential health concerns from radiation exposure, the NASA space nukes initiative represents the Bush administration's covert move to develop power systems for space-based weapons such as lasers on satellites. The military has often stated that their planned lasers in space will require enormous power projection capability and that nuclear reactors in orbit are the only practical way of providing such power.

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space maintains that just like missile defense is a Trojan horse for the Pentagon's real agenda for control and domination of space, NASA's nuclear rocket is a Trojan horse for the militarization of space.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclearspace-03b.html


White House Go-Ahead On NASA Nuclear Prometheus Project:
In learning about the prospects for NASA's Project Prometheus, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the anti-nuclear group, said they oppose this development as a "dangerous step in the expansion of nuclear technology into space."

"First we are concerned about the likely toxic contamination at the Department of Energy labs as they increase plutonium processing for the Nuclear Systems Initiative," Gagnon told SPACE.com .

"Secondly the dramatic escalation of nuclear launches in the coming years only increases the chances of an accident from Florida or other launch sites," he said.

Gagnon said that he and his group fear that the nuclear reactors for Mars missions are "the ice breakers that end up becoming the reactor technologies that get adapted for space based weapons systems, long the dream of the Pentagon Star Warriors."
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/nuclear_power_030117.html

Project Prometheus
To develop and demonstrate new power and propulsion technologies to overcome these limitations, the President’s Budget proposes $279 million; ($3 billion over five years) for Project Prometheus, which builds on the Nuclear Systems Initiative started last year. Project Prometheus includes the development of the first nuclear-electric space mission, called the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. This mission will conduct extensive, in-depth studies of the moons of Jupiter that may harbor subsurface oceans and thus have important implications in the search for life beyond Earth. In addition, it will prove new technologies for future NASA missions.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/nasa.html


NASA To Boost Nuclear Space Science With Project Prometheus
Los Angeles - Jan 20, 2003
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03c.html

[Shyriath]

3. Gah.

Unfortunately, it is true that nuclear power in some form is a near-necessity for really decent outer-system missions. Solar power won't cut it so far from the sun, batteries don't hold enough juice...

It would be great if they could ever get some kind of fusion generator developed for that kind of thing. Usually much less radioactive waste generated, especially with D-He3 fusion.