mts%gn@cdp.uucp (10/08/89)
Media Transcription Service : Defence Information, David & Susan Stott, 12 Sheri Drive, NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS, Warrington. WA12 8PT Telephone: Newton-le-Willows 0925 226647 GreenNet: "mts" -------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT Ref No. 562 Channel 4 Television - 7 p.m. News Tuesday, 3rd October, 1989 Report featuring comment by Dr Clayne Yeates of NASA re. Plutonium/Galileo Mission Programme Editor: Tony Millett Deputy Editor: Garron Baines Editor: Richard Tait Presenter: "Residents living near the NASA launch site in Florida are going to court to try to stop next Thursday's flight by the space shuttle Atlantis. They are worried because the shuttle will carry the space probe 'Galileo', which is powered by plutonium. Locals say if anything goes wrong, the whole area could be showered with radioactivity." Reporter (Alex Thomson) "Jupiter in 1995 and this (simulation) is the way NASA sees the 'Galileo' probe descending through the vast planet's atmosphere, at a hundred thousand miles an hour, sending back data as it does so. Florida in 1989 (film) and, nine days from launch, the mission has more immediate problems. 'Galileo's' thermo-nuclear power generator contains fifty pounds of plutonium 238, one of the most toxic radioactive substances. Next week, a judge will hear an application to have the launch prevented, by those who fear a nuclear accident. They say if that happened, as the shuttle 'Atlantis' carries 'Galileo' into orbit, Florida could be showered with deadly plutonium dust." Lanny Simkins ('Stop Galileo' Group): "A micro-gram of plutonium, a tiny, tiny particle, breathed into the lungs will cause lung cancer so, in that fifty pounds of plutonium are, theoretically, tens of thousands of lung cancers." Reporter: "But NASA says the shuttle launch is straightforward, and it rejected a safer conventional launch to prove the versatility of the shuttle, building in safety measures to protect the deadly fuel." Dr Clayne Yeates (NASA): "All of these steps have been taken to look at the safety involved in this, and submitted to the White House for approval. And that approval has been given by the White House to go ahead, and we feel that it's, er, completely safe." Reporter: "Just as well, since NASA's own figures indicate it would cost two hundred million pounds per square mile to decontaminate plutonium radiation." --- Patt Haring | United Nations | Did u read patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | today? -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-