CollegeStation17155 t1_j5uayw7 wrote
Reply to comment by BabylonDrifter in NASA to test nuclear thermal rocket engine for the first time in 50 years | CNN by dem676
>Nuclear rockets are only deployed in trajectories that do not intersect with any planet.
unless there is a launch failure or Newton to pound thrust conversion error...
Underhill42 t1_j5vq0w5 wrote
No reason to launch anything significantly radioactive. It's the waste you have to worry about, the fission fuel itself is (comparatively) safe. It has to be, if it were seriously radioactive it wouldn't still exist after almost 5 billion years in the ground.
Still not exactly *safe*, but so long as you stay well away from critical mass the heavy metal poisoning will probably do more damage than the radiation.
And I think I recall hearing that NASA is moving strongly away from using legacy pre-physics units for anything, in large part because it opens the door to stupid conversion errors like that, and someone inevitably walks through.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments