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ItsAConspiracy t1_j10bji0 wrote

Reply to comment by BlueSkyToday in Nuclear fusion breakthrough: What does it mean for space exploration? by Gari_305

The half-life of U235 is 700 million years. The longer the half-life, the less radioactive something is, so even weapons-grade uranium at over 90% U235 is not particularly dangerous. You wouldn't want to eat it or inhale a large concentration of it, but you wouldn't want to do that with solid rocket fuel either.

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BlueSkyToday t1_j1p3ws0 wrote

In a world where people are deeply upset about the environmental health effects of fragments of shells made out depleted uranium, I don't think that scattering highly enriched uranium is going to fly.

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ItsAConspiracy t1_j1pzpeu wrote

And yet, plutonium-238 has flown multiple times, and that's way more radioactive.

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