- STEVE KROFT, co-host: On October 13th
a Titan IV rocket is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral carrying
72 pounds of deadly plutonium; enough plutonium, in theory anyway, to administer
a fatal dose to every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth several
times over. Got your attention? Well,
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- It's beginning to get the attention of
some people in Florida who want to know what that stuff is doing on top
of a rocket and what happens to them if something goes wrong. The mission
is called Cassini, and the 72 pounds of plutonium is to power the equipment
on board an unmanned space probe during its $3 billion, 11-year journey
to study Saturn. The chances of something going drastically wrong are a
remote possibility, but that remote possibility has triggered what scientists
say is a long-overdue debate on the use of nuclear power in space.
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- Dr. WESLEY HUNTRESS: We wouldn't be doing
this mission if we didn't believe it was perfectly safe and that the risks,
even if there should be an accident, are absolutely minimal to the--to
the population. Simply wouldn't be doing it.
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- (Footage of Huntress with Kroft)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Dr. Wesley Huntress
is the man in charge of space science and planetary exploration for NASA,
including the Cassini Project.
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- Is it absolutely necessary to have plutonium
on this mission?
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- Dr. HUNTRESS: Yes, it is because otherwise
we could not power the spacecraft. We have no means of getting to the
outer solar system, just a bit beyond Mars, without using RTGs to power
the spacecraft.
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- (Footage of RTG generators; launching
of a rocket; space probe; Cassini spacecraft)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) In fact, NASA has
been using RTGs, or radioisotope thermoelectric generators, powered by
plutonium for more than 30 years, although the agency has not exactly advertised
it. They've been used on satellites, on the Apollo moon flights, and in
deep space probes. But this mission is different in one key respect: Cassini
is carrying far more plutonium, 50 percent more plutonium, than has ever
been launched into space before. And that's what's gotten people's attention.
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- Dr. JOHN GOFMAN: My heart says, `Go Cassini,'
because I love the space program. My head says, `Maybe we ought to say,
"Whoa."'
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- (Footage of Gofman; vintage footage of
Gofman; footage of Gofman with Kroft)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Dr. John Gofman is
Professor Emeritus of biology and molecular biology at the University of
California, Berkeley. He was also one of the first scientists to work with
plutonium on the Manhattan Project 55 years ago. He thinks it's possible
that an explosion on or shortly after launch could rip the RTGs apart and
vaporize the plutonium into a cloud of microscopic dust.
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- What does plutonium do to the human body?
What are the risks involved? What's the greatest danger?
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- Dr. GOFMAN: Plutonium's greatest danger
is to be in fine particles. If it's in that form and is inhaled, it can
produce pulmonary cancer. And that's not a maybe. We know unequivocally
that it produces lung cancer.
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- (Footage of Gofman and Kroft)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Gofman, who has long
been more concerned about the effects of low-level radiation than the mainstream
scientific community, acknowledges that the chances of an accident are
very remote. But if something unforeseen went horribly wrong, he says the
consequences could be drastic.
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- Dr. GOFMAN: Depending on the winds and
where the plutonium comes down and assuming it were in fine particles,
you could have numbers like 100,000 or more people who develop lung cancer
in a 50-year period as a result of that inhalation. And I have said publicly
that if there is such an explosion, you can kiss Florida goodbye.
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- KROFT: Kiss Florida goodbye?
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- Dr. GOFMAN: Well, Florida will be there,
but it won't be a very good place to live.
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- (Footage of anti-nuclear activists)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Statements like that
from scientists like John Gofman and a small, but vocal band of anti-nuclear
activists have people around Cape Canaveral asking some serious questions
about the Cassini mission.
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- Unidentified Man #1: What gives anybody,
including the federal government, the right to risk the population's death
or--or injury just for space exploration?
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- (Footage of meeting between populace
and NASA officials)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) And people are not
always satisfied with NASA's answer that there's nothing to worry about.
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- Unidentified Man #2: If you look at what
goes on in every--everyday life, any time one of us gets in a car we put
other people at risk. And...
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- (Footage of meeting)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Opponents of the launch
accuse NASA of arrogance. NASA accuses its opponents of ignorance. And
there seems to be a little truth in both arguments.
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- The Cassini probe will begin its journey
to Saturn here at Cape Canaveral aboard that Titan IV rocket. What are
the chances that something could go wrong? It's difficult to say. Before
the space shuttle Challenger exploded, NASA put the chances of a failure
at one in 100,000; after the explosion, one in 76. How reliable is the
Titan IV? It has an excellent record, but it's not perfect.
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- (Footage of Titan IV rocket launch; Cassini
spacecraft; Dr. Michio Kaku)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Take this 1993 launch
of a Titan IV rocket with a $1 billion satellite aboard. A minute and a
half into the mission it exploded. NASA says the chances of it happening
again on the Cassini mission with plutonium aboard are one in 350. But
Dr. Michio Kaku, a prominent physicist at the City University of New York
and a leading opponent of the Cassini mission, thinks the chances of something
going wrong are a lot greater.
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- Dr. MICHIO KAKU: I say the true odds
are one in 20. A chain is no stronger than the weakest link. The weakest
link is the Titan IV booster rocket. Its track record shows failures one
in 20 times.
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- (Footage of Titan IV rocket; Titan IV
on launch pad; Kaku)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Since that failure
NASA says it's made lots of improvements on the Titan IV, and that even
if there was an explosion on the pad or shortly after launch, the chances
of any plutonium being released are one in 1,500. Michio Kaku says he
wishes he could get those odds in the lottery.
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- Dr. KAKU: In their heart of hearts they
keep believing, `It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen.' They keep
their fingers crossed, hoping it's not gonna happen. But, look, I don't
want to play Russian roulette. I don't want to go like this and say, `It's
not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen.'
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- Dr. HUNTRESS: We are subjected to an
incredibly aggressive interagency--very independent process in order to
get permission for any of these launches. It involves not just NASA, but
it involves the Department of Energy, several other departments. It involves
academia. They look at what we do and they review everything we do.
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- KROFT: This is a full-scale mock-up of
the RTG, the plutonium power generator, that will be on board Cassini.
The plutonium itself is divided up into more than 200 of these small pieces,
encased in heat-resistant metal that's able to withstand high impacts.
It's then surrounded by three layers of graphite.
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- (Footage of men handling RTG generator;
RTG testing)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Graphite is a virtually
indestructible material NASA uses in its re-entry shields. And it says
it's subjected the RTGs to all sorts of blasts and impacts and that they
are strong enough to withstand just about any conceivable mishap.
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- Ms. BEVERLY COOK (Department of Energy):
The RTGs that we use on space missions have to be designed to withstand
accidents. That is our design requirement.
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- (Footage of Cook; meeting between NASA
officials and the public)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Beverly Cook of the
Department of Energy says the plutonium is in ceramic form and designed
to shatter like a plate. She tried to reassure this group in Melbourne,
Florida, that even if there was an explosion on launch and some plutonium
was released, most of it would be in chunks near the launch pad. And NASA
says none of it would escape beyond the Kennedy Space Center.
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- Ms. COOK: There is no condition that's
going to cause a release in air. The overpressures in the shrapnel and
the explosion in the air will not cause a release. We're not talking about
something released in a cloud that's moving anyplace.
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- Dr. GOFMAN: You know, I've been around
the engineering games with weapons testing, and I've just seen so many
engineering predictions go astray that I don't get taken in by what NASA
says. I hope and pray that NASA is right. But as a scientist, concerned
with the public health, I have to take the position that they may be totally
wrong.
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- Unidentified Woman #1: We have ignition
and liftoff from Cape Canaveral air station...
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- (Footage of Delta rocket explosion in
midlaunch)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) And occasionally things
do go wrong, like this launch of a Delta rocket last January.
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- Woman #1: We have had an anomaly. We're--just
had an anomaly of the Delta...
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) The plume of smoke
from the explosion drifted out over the sea and then back over town, south
and west of Cape Canaveral.
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- If there had been plutonium in that plume,
it would have been a problem.
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- Mayor JOHN PORTER: Obviously it would--would
have been a problem.
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- (Footage of Porter; Cape Canaveral city
sign)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) John Porter is the
mayor of the city of Cape Canaveral, whose 8,000 residents live closest
to the Cassini launchpad.
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- Are you convinced this is safe?
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- Mayor PORTER: Well, I don't think NASA's
convinced that it's safe. I think that--you know, it is--that is a matter
of o--of opinion, it's a matter of chances...
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- KROFT: They told us it was...
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- Mayor PORTER: Yeah, if you look in...
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- KROFT: They told us it was safe.
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- Mayor PORTER: ...in their own documents,
they--they understand that there are--there is a small chance that--that
we could have some problems, if it explodes and--and if the canisters would
come apart. It's--and it's slim chance.
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- (Aerial footage of Cape Canaveral; footage
of doctors being trained to treat radiation victims)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Mayor Porter says
even the perception of plutonium being released during an accident could
destroy the local economy. Who would want to vacation here, ye asks, or
buy Florida citrus or seafood? While NASA says the danger to the Florida
economy and the public at large is minuscule, the agency is taking no chances.
It would seem to be quietly preparing for the worst. At hospitals in central
Florida specialists from the US Department of Energy have been training
doctors and emergency technicians to treat radiation victims in the event
of a Cassini accident.
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- But if you think it's so safe, why do
you need the medical team?
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- Dr. HUNTRESS: When you're launching a
rocket, whether it's carrying plutonium or not, it's--it's a hazardous
event. And so it's--it's like--it's like being at a football game with--you
know, wi--there's always ambulances at a football game. Nobody expects
anybody to get hurt...
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- KROFT: People think...
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- Dr. HUNTRESS: ...but you always have
contingency plans and make--make sure that you're prepared.
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- (Footage of radiological control center;
response team members at work)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) NASA has also set
up a radiological control center to communicate with 32 special response
teams that will be on alert at the space center and in places like Cocoa
Beach, Titusville and the city of Cape Canaveral to monitor radiation levels
and to isolate and locate radioactive debris in the event of an accident.
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- This is from your own environmental impact
statement, and I want to read you a couple of things from it. If there's
an accident it talks about, quote, "removing and disposing of all
vegetation in contaminated areas, demolishing some or all structures and
relocating the affected population permanently."
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- Dr. HUNTRESS: If there should be any
such accident.
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- KROFT: I mean, that sounds fairly drastic.
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- Dr. HUNTRESS: Well, the--what they're
probably talking about mostly is--is the damage on site, near the--near--near
the launchpad because there's clearly, when one of these things goes, a
lot of damage near the launchpad. And we have to repair all that stuff.
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- (Footage of Alan Kohn speaking to gathering;
Kohn with Kroft; shuttle launch)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) There's at least one
former NASA employee who might take issue with that. Alan Kohn, who opposes
the mission, worked for NASA for 30 years. He's neither a scientist nor
an engineer, but he was the emergency preparedness operations officer at
the Kennedy Space Center and one of the people responsible for protecting
NASA employees and spectators during two previous launches that carried
plutonium.
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- Mr. ALAN KOHN: I had the impression that
NASA was fully aware of the fact that plutonium could be released and could
fall on civilian populations, regardless of what they say now.
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- (Footage of Kohn with Kroft)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Kohn thinks NASA has
deliberately understated the risk and has kept the public in the dark about
the potential dangers of launching plutonium into space.
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- Why are you so vocal about it now? I
mean, you worked for NASA for 30 years.
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- Mr. KOHN: I feel guilty, quite frankly.
I feel like I should--didn't do the job I should have to protect the public.
No government agency has the right to put the public at risk without even
a public discussion or public hearing about it.
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- Unidentified Woman #2: My question is
to...
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- (Footage of public meeting with NASA
officials; Porter with Kroft)
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- KROFT: (Voiceover) Now, finally, there
is a lot of public discussion going on, and there will be a lot more as
the launch approaches. Mayor John Porter thinks it's long overdue.
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