From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Oct 22 2002 - 15:42:05 MDT
From:
Nuclear Powered Space Missions - Past and Future
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/ianus/npsm2.htm
"The heritage of this program: at appr. 900 to 1,000 km of altitude about
**940 kg** highly enriched uranium as well as more than 15 metric tons of
radioactive material orbit with an inclination of 65o. In addition, recent
radar observation indicates that several ten thousand "drops" 0.6 to 2 cm
in diameter circle on this orbit. The drops consist of liquid
sodium-potassium, the reactor coolant."
Very interesting -- there is enough uranium orbiting the Earth to
construct ~60 atomic weapons (it *is* weapons grade material).
It'll be there for another 600 years unless someone decides
to go get it.
There isn't much shielding, but you would wonder if you could
send a robot to go fetch the reactor components, and reuse the
fuel in a redesigned power reactor? [I doubt robotics technology
would be robust enough at this point to disconnect the reactors
without significantly damaging the ability to extract power
from the reactors.]
Robert
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