Nuclear propulsion - political suicide

> >
> > > I agree, general democracies won't let you get away with NTEO
> (Nuke
> > > To Low Earth Orbit). Either Gas Core, NERVA, or Orion. Ain't
> gonna
> > > happen. China might get away with it.
> >
> > Doubt it. For launching they're all ridiculously dangerous tech.
> > Historically rockets have had a 1% failure rate. The impact of a
> > failure on a Gas Core or NERVA could be catastropic.
>
> Agreed.
[snikt]

I would like to know what "catastrophic" would mean. (Unfortunately, the Web
is remarkably poor in pages about nuke propulsion, so I found no line about
safety considerations.) China has done other projects that were proven to be
catastrophic for its own population (like the mass killing of birds during
Mao's era), so the possibility of catastrophes does not seem to be a
compelling argument.

My point is: if the objection to nukes in space is purely political, then
that is a guarantee neither that nuclear rockets will never exist nor that
they are a dead end. Politics varies over space and over time. Science,
technology and economics are the really bottom line that dictates whether
something is possible or not.

Lucio Coelho