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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1997)
Dissenters rally against upcoming probe launch Cassini protesters fear NASA and the government are lying about the risks By Marcia Dunn The Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A frighteningly poisonous sub stance contained in a box in a box in a box, it’s been bombarded by explosions and shrapnel, torched by burning fuel, slammed against steel and concrete and drenched in sea water. And after years of the most se vere testing possible, the Energy Department says the shielded plu tonium for NASA’s soon-to-be launched Saturn probe, Cassini, is almost indestructible. Not completely indestructible. Almost. Not impossible to burst and leak. Nearly impossible. “Impossible is not something you can say here,” said Beverly Cook, the Energy Department’s program director for plutonium power systems. "The worst that can happen is a 1 mile-in-diameter asteroid could hit Florida right when we hit the launch button. That’s not impos sible. But I don’t think anybody is worrying about an asteroid when we launch Cassini.” Asteroids aside, Cassini is safe whether the rocket blows or not, Cook and other government offi cials say. Any release of plutoni um would be minute, they insist. But in a scene straight out of a conspiracy thriller, anti-nuclear activists, pacifists and even a re tired NASA safety officer have joined forces to expose what they believe are government lies. They want to stop Cassini’s Oct. 13 launch, which they fear could kill or maim thousands. It’s the biggest, loudest crusade against a nuclear-powered space shot ever. Then again, it's the most plutonium for a space shot ever — 72 pounds of the highly radioactive, highly carcinogenic stuff, compressed into a nonpul verizing ceramic form so it cannot be inhaled in the event of a launch accident. By mail, by phone, by rally and especially by Internet, the anti Cassini crowd is gaining atten tion, if not momentum, as the launch date nears. A march near the launch site Saturday drew an estimated 500 protesters. The result: plutonium pande monium. "Can man build something that's indestructible, in the fury and fire of a launch explosion?” asked Alan Kohn, an emergency preparedness operations officer for NASA during two plutonium powered interplanetary launches several years ago. Feeling guilty and being retired, he now sides with the opposition. “You’re going by faith — not faith in God, faith in man,” the new Kohn said. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Richard Spehalski, Cassini pro gram manager, contends Kohn and others like him are spreading fear, not facts. "Their techniques are very much like walking into a crowd ed movie theater and yelling, ’Fire!’ ” Spehalski said. The plutonium 238 dioxide supplies electricity for Cassini’s instruments during the 11-year, $3.4 billion mission to explore Saturn and its enchanting rings and icy moons. The trip to the sixth planet from the sun will take seven years, cover 2.2 billion miles and require gravity-assisted flybys of Venus, Earth and Jupiter. FREE OCT 19 THF. 1*0 ANflUAl BROUN FELLINIS MUMBLIN' JIM PHAT SIDY SMOKEHOUSE CHIEF BROOM JIVE TALKIN' ROBOTS SUPPER FIELD BEHIND MAC COURT SPECIAL PACKAGE PRICES now for back to school GUARANTEED BEST PRODUCTS RIVIERA Frame + Futon + Cover Full $299 Queen $329 ^ Frame + Futon Ttotn $139 Full $169 Queen $199 tit ^CALGARY ^.Frame + Futon +Cover Full $349 Queen $399 MONTEREY Frame + Futon + Cover Full $439 Queen $509 ROCK SOFT FUTON Factory Direct MaJr in USA Frames • Futons • Covers 1231 Alder, Eugene (U of O Campus) 686-5069 90 Days Same As Cash with Credit Approval HOURS: Monday-Saturday 10-6, Sunday 12-5
