Click here to sign up. To subscribe, call 904.829.6586 Order Home Delivery Online Order daily and Sunday home delivery of the Record for one year. D.C. However, the mission has drawn opponents across the globe, because of its fuel source - 72.3 pounds of plutonium.
Opponents question the safety of launching the extremely hazardous poison into space.
There would be no release of radiation at all from an explosion. The plutonium inside the spacecraft cannot explode. It isn't the same type of plutonium used in nuclear weapons. Savage said Cassini is powered by plutonium-238 dioxide, a ceramic form that has a low chemical reactivity, reducing its chance of vaporizing into the air in an explosion. The ceramic form of plutonium, however, primarily fractures into large chunks that can't be inhaled, Savage said.