Unanswered Question: DID THE SHUTTLE HAVE NUCLEAR MATERIAL ONBOARD????

In the past, nuclear materials have been a part of the United States' Space Program, both for power and research purposes!!

It is critical to know whether this mission contained such an experiment or power source, because the highly unstable material likely was aerosolized in the burn-up upon re-entry. This means that the solid material may have been disintegrated into individual molecules or groups of molecules, which will now float around the Earth's atmosphere, until such time as they are precipitated out by weather patterns. This will cause wide-spread cancers and a radioactive "dead zone", which would be uninhabitable for up to 1 MILLION YEARS.

We need to call local TV, news, and radio stations to press this issue, which, if history teaches us anything, the US Government will attempt to cover-up!!

NASA is currently only issuing a "WARNING" against seeking out or touching the fallout; but the material may be far more dangerous than merely that! Simply breathing a single molecule of Plutonium into one's lungs is guaranteed death.

We MUST email the news stations, call in to the radio shows, and press this issue URGENTLY!! Otherwise it is likely that it may be glossed over as so many other nuclear disasters in this country have been; only to come to light years afterwards!!

No NUKES IN SPACE!!! It's simply too dangerous!!

Sincerely, Josh!

Radiation based batteries are usually employed only for unmanned deep-space probes such as those visiting the outer planets.

The space shuttle may have only contained small amounts of plutonium. They were routinely used to keep computers warm in space on rockets. I cannot say whether or not they contained these radioisotope warmers, however, I can tell you, as someone with a scientific background, that these would be very little threat to any life on the planet.

The claim that a single atom of Plutonium can kill you is ludicrous. I can also say that a single cubic inch of normal air can kill, and I would be correct. If I inject that air into a blood vessel in your brain you would surely die. Remember, one pound of fresh air is enough to kill everyone on this planet. It would take a lot more than one atom of plutonium to kill a person. Show one scientific study to back this up.

In fact, you will never find a single known death linked directly to plutonium. Many workers at the Manhattan Project breathed in plutonium. They got no more lung cancer than the rest of the population. 26 men inhaled plutonium (or absorbed it through cuts) at Los Alamos in the 1940s. As of 1990, seven of the 26 have died, compared to the expected death rate of 13 among people of similar age. Plutonium still shows up in the urine of the survivors and always will. Eighteen seriously ill hospital patients were injected with small doses of plutonium between 1945-47. Five of the subjects were still alive nearly 30 years later and show no serious effects. Yes, plutonium in large quantities will kill, but the small doses do nothing. This is according to all the scientific studies to date.

As far as the whole dead zone argument, that is also ludicrous. Think of how many bombs were detonated in the 1960s. The number is at least in the hundreds. I would like to see evidence of one such dead zone and the millions of deaths caused by hundreds of bombs containing much more plutonium than the shuttle would surely have. The fact is we are still here, large areas are not uninhabitable for millions of years, and there is no evidence that radioisotopes led to widespread cancer.

>--- major BS ---<
I'll be back.

1 -“The claim that a single atom of Plutonium can kill you is ludicrous”-
. I agree
a typo of sorts.... I believe the toxic load for mice are 4 nano grams per kilo. I weigh 180lbs. A particle too small too see. Hey mr. nukular physsisist, breath some 1 micron
powered plutonium; oh say, a micrograms worth. See you later.
Some people have lived through the fission bombs of Japan. So what?

2. In fact, you will never find a single known death linked directly to plutonium.
See 1

Dead zones?
funny man.
Been to the beautiful town of St. George, Utah? And it IS a beautiful spot in
a wild clean land of color and vistas. Down Winders. But that was more than Plutonium.
Search for Plutonium toxic.
Okay, we all know the stuff is use to
make fission bombs. Bye bye people (Aug 6&9 1945)
It is also quite toxic and radioligicaly active.
plutonium is characterized as the
single most dangerous substance known (Anderson 1997; Grossman 1995;
Down winders and miners
http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9507/0531.html
•-Plutonium is known to be the most carcinogenic or cancer
producing substance on earth and it is man made.-
-• In general, plutonium has a long time lapse between exposure and when cancers are
diagnosed (latency period) of about 30 years, but this can vary according to the dose
received.-
However, if plutonium or uranium gets into the body, the
high-energy alpha radiation can damage cells and cause cell
mutations that can lead to cancer. The main health concern for plutonium is inhalation of small particles or absorption
through cuts or wounds. While the amount of data is limited, animal studies suggest that as little as one
millionth of a gram or less of plutonium lodged in the lung
is highly likely to cause cancer.
http://www.noradiation.org/news/rnfactsheet.htm