Nukes & solar panels

I think that bringing nuclear power into space
isn't an 'environmentalist thing', its more that
almost everybody (rich, polluting businesses), would
object to radiation flying over their heads. They
would also not be able (or at least now) to see any
immidiate benefit of making a moon base, so they would
object even more. I understand that it may not be
necessarily that dangerous, but 'they' meaning pretty
much everybody doesn't no that (we're not colonials
any more, but I think one senator almost got lynched
because he supported the Jay Treaty, which, as far as
the people could tell was traitorous because it had
something to do with England).

> In a message dated 4/3/01 1:17:19 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time, rmenich@...
> writes:
>
> << I don't doubt your claim that having an SP-100
> reactor around would be a
> great benefit versus solar power for space resource
> bootstrapping
> operations. I don't think the choice of
> destination (Moon, NEA,
> Phobos/Deimos) changes that technical advantage.
>
> You used the phrase, "...just because a few
> earth-side environmentalist
> might throw a tantrum". I wouldn't underestimate
> the political power of
> the environmentalists. I think that it is risky
> to design a bootstrapping
> operation around nuclear power. Not "risky" in a
> physical sense, but
> risky in a political sense. One might design a
> bootstrapping operation
> around the assumption that there will be an SP-100
> available, and then have
> that idea crushed like an eggshell by the
> environmentalist lobby. That
> wouldn't be a good outcome for us.
>
> You say, "... then we might as well brave the
> environmentalists and ship a
> nuke up to the moon". You're a braver person than
> I.
>
> Ron Menich >>
>
> If the Environmentalists are so powerful, how come
> they don't get everything
> they wanted. Species are still disappearing, and
> habitats are being losts.
> The folks clearing rainforests in the Amazon River
> basin don't seem to give a
> damn about what the Environmentalists think, they
> just continue what their
> doing without giving them a second though. There are
> people who hunt Ivory in
> Africa, and people who kill chimpanzees because they
> like monkey meat. The
> Japanese Just go ahead hunting whales (all for
> research purposes of course,
> wink wink). Launching a nuclear reactor would likely
> do no damage to the
> environment and wouldn't do nearly as much damage as
> clearing rainforests if
> it crashed to Earth. If environmentalists got
> everything they wanted we all
> be mired in a perpetual economic recession with high
> unemployment as the cost
> of doing business or hiring people would be too high
> due to all the
> regulations. If the Environmentalists always insist
> of making no compromises
> with the space lobby and make their lives difficult,
> then all their doing is
> making sure that those people clearing rainforests,
> stay on Earth to continue
> what their doing until eventually their are no
> rainforests left, ditto with
> whales etc.
>
> Tom Kalbfus
>

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