He might consider how such a catastrophe might be prevented without sending nuclear material in the shape of nuclear weapons into space
Posted in General on 16. Aug, 2010
He might consider how such a catastrophe might be prevented without sending nuclear material, in the shape of nuclear weapons, into space.JIM MANGLESWortham, Norfolk. Two missions with RTGs on board have had serious accidents – one was Apollo 13 – but the RTGs worked exactly as designed.
The plutonium is in the form of a ceramic – plutonium dioxide – which makes the RTG extremely robust and the chances of a significant release of radioactive material under extreme conditions, such as the failure of the launch system or accidental re-entry of the vehicle into the Earth’s atmosphere, very much less than one in a million, and then both slight and confined to the immediate vicinity of such an improbable event.If Mr Brierley wants something to worry about, perhaps he would like to consider what would happen in the distinctly more likely event of a one-mile wide asteroid hitting the Earth, with the probable loss of up to one billion human lives. The sort of plutonium-powered radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) Cassini carries have been used many dozens of times on Nasa space missions without any release of radioactive materials or loss of life. Sir: John Brierley’s letter (5 July) warning of a possible disaster in space from the Cassini mission is an example of the sort of scare-mongering that has done so much to give CND a bad name.
Anywhere but Ulster, one might hope that they could be persuaded to reroute their march and claim a victory for common sense and the peace process. They must realise that if there is ever to be a lasting settlement, both sides will have to give a little, and somebody has to be first.JON PERKINSLondon N15. Since in this case the Orange parade could have returned from church the way it came, offending no one, the insistence on marching down the Garvaghy Road can only be seen as provocative.Bafflingly, many Orangemen seem genuinely unable to understand why the Garvaghy Road residents object so strongly to their parade. Faced with such intransigence from both sides, the Government should intervene against whichever side is acting more provocatively. Given the lack of a political solution, the RUC’s decision to allow the Drumcree march is understandable: whatever they do, one side or the other will riot and the RUC will take the brunt of it, so they might as well offend the side with the smaller number of potential rioters.
However, morally it was the wrong decision.
Dr Mo Mowlam could be forgiven for thinking she has strayed into a looking-glass world, where the objective of both sides is to seize the moral low ground, and negotiations are conducted by five-year-olds threatening to scream and scream until they are sick if they don’t get their own way. Sir: So once again the summer madness is upon us, and once again we are treated to the spectacle of Ulster tearing itself apart. Everyone, above all the teachers themselves, should give it to him.. With every day in power he is demonstrating that he is determined to make his programme work He is pointing the vessel in the right direction Now all he needs is a fair wind. Quality education is about persuading the unmotivated to learn, persuading mediocre performers to become good performers, and extending the brightest to their fullest stretch.But Mr Blunkett, above all, has the right kind of ambition for a politician: the ambition to achieve something. If standards are to rise, every child is important, from the least able to the most able. Thus some teachers are encouraged to believe that they don’t need to expend energy on aspiring and able children, leading middle-class parents to disconnect themselves from state schooling – which, in turn, undermines the whole system.