Will Columbia Disaster Embolden Nuclear Protesters

Tangoman,

On the contrary, if we can't get better than a 99% launch success rate,
then we're still going to have to deal with exactly the situation you
describe after 100 launches. Is this not a valid reason for concern?

I'm not arguing one way or the other, but I think the safety question is a
valid one. I am interested to hear why you or others believe that a
nuclear-powered device breaking up on launch would not be a health risk.
(And if not, have we just found a better solution to dealing with our
nuclear waste than burying it under Yucca Mountain for a few million
years?)

But I don't want you to have to go back over discussions you may have
already had, so if you have already had this discussion on the list please
just tell me to go throttle myself and I'll go pore through the
archives for the details. :-)

Cheers,
--Justin