[NukeNet] URGENT HELP NEED WITH PLUTONIUM SPACE LAUNCH-NASA To Launch 25 Lbs. Of Plutonium In January 2006

[Bill Smirnow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Global Network
To: Global Network Against Weapons
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 12:08 PM
Subject: [abolition-caucus] URGENT HELP NEED WITH
PLUTONIUM SPACE LAUNCH




Dear Friends:



I write to urge your immediate financial support
for a project the Global Network is now
undertaking.  NASA plans to launch 25 pounds of
highly-toxic plutonium from Florida in January,
2006 on a New Horizons space probe to the planet
Pluto.  In NASA's Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) for the New Horizons Mission they say that
the plutonium to be used will be a mixture of
pu-238 and pu-239.  The pu-238 is the hottest and
most toxic ever created.  The pu-239 has a half
life of several hundred thousands of years.  The
Nagasaki bomb dropped by the U.S. at the end of
World War II used pu-239.



In the EIS, NASA acknowledges that a deadly launch
accident could release the plutonium to be carried
by prevailing winds for a 60-mile radius.  In such
a worst case scenario NASA states that clean-up
costs would range from $241 million to $1.3
billion per square mile.  In the 1997 Cassini EIS,
NASA acknowledged they would have to remove all
the people, the buildings, the vegetation, the
animals, and the top ½ inch of soil in the
contaminated area after such an accident.  Central
Florida would be a nuclear wasteland.  One thing
we have learned over the years is that space
technology can and does fail.



The Global Network is now arranging to have op-ed
pieces placed in several key newspapers in the
region.  We are also working with members of the
Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice to organize
a space center protest just prior to the January
11 launch.  But we'd also like to do something
more.



The Global Network would like to purchase three ¼
page advertisements in the Florida Today newspaper
in the weeks prior to the launch.  We have
determined that the advertisements would cost us
$2,800.  They would allow us to share our deep
concerns with thousands of people throughout the
space coast region.  In the advertisement we'd
place the map, right out of NASA's EIS, that
illustrates the 60-mile "potentially affected
 area" surrounding the space center that could be
contaminated after a launch accident.  In
addition, the ad would allow us to give our
unfiltered reasons for opposing nuclear power in
space.



We hope you will help us raise awareness and
debate in Central Florida by donating today to
this special fund to place advertisements in the
newspaper.  Your check (mail to address just
below) will help us raise the level of discussion
about launching deadly plutonium into space.  If
you'd like to make a contribution with your credit
card just go to our website home page
http://www.space4peace.org and scroll down to the
secure red Donate Now! button.



Thank you for your help with this important
effort.



Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in
Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell phone)
globalnet at mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Our blog)