/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14621729
Pu-238 RTGs are low power alpha emitters and generally safe to handle with little protection. The only parallel you could possibly draw is when Kosmos 954 burnt up in the atmosphere over Canada with 50 kilograms of uranium-235 and that very nearly killed people who picked up pieces of debris, some were up to 500 rem per hour. It also raised background radiation, similar to the nuclear tests, which affects everyone to this day.
>Gutless handwringing is merely obnoxious coming from obnoxious normies, but it's unforgivable on /sfg/
I'm just not fucking autistic enough to pretend nuclear isn't dangerous or that what is said here will change the opinions of anyone outside this place. People nearly stopped Cassini from launching, you think they're going to be cool with much more radioactive material flying overhead when it serves no purpose over safer technology?

Have nuclear fears generally been overblown? Yes. Does it mean you should go the other way with it and pretend there are no issues? No, that's absolutely retarded and childish.
>>14621749
The shield has a nonzero chance of failure during an explosion and it would be ditched shortly after reaching orbit, meaning it's entirely plausible that the radioactive material makes it back to Earth unshielded. It's also far more likely to expose someone to high levels of radiation during production and payload integration versus a reactor that has never gone critical.