Will Columbia Disaster Embolden Nuclear Protesters

I was one of the people who protested against nuclear power in the
'70's. While nuclear power is clearly necessary for deep space
exploration, far from the Sun, I think that nuclear power was grossly
oversold economically in the 50's and 60's. Nuclear power has never
been cheap, even though their insurance and waste processing is heavily
subsidized. Furthermore, I don't think the risks are worth the energy.
The disposal problem still hasn't been solved, and the potential for
terrorists to either take over a nuclear power plant and cause a
deliberate accident (an oxymoron, but you know what I mean) or hijack
spent fuel for a dirty bomb is quite real. Note that 10-15 years ago
someone hit a French nuclear power plant with an anti-tank weapon.
Fortunately, the weapon wasn't effective against concrete. Al Qaeda is
known for their meticulous planning and attention to detail. They
won't make the same mistake.

By the way, I do use logic to arrive at my convictions.

On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, at 06:36 AM, Combs, Mike wrote:

>> From: Ravenart@... [mailto:Ravenart@...]
>>
>> Which lead to a silly image in my head of
>> anti-nuke protesters
>> demanding that governments build ships and O'Neil colonies so
>> that everybody
>> can live in nice, solar-powered homes without any danger of
>> radation from
>> earth's core.
>
> There's only one flaw to your reasoning. It proceeds from the
> assumption
> that such people use logic to arrive at their convictions. ;)
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Combs
>

Space tourism could be our ticket to the stars. Save your pennies,
suborbital flights for $100,000 may start in 2005! See
http://www.spaceadventures.com/suborbital for details.

Al Globus
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html