Word: nuclear
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...talking about the secretary of interior, we're talking about someone next to the president at the very top of the nuclear chain of command," Nunn said...
Flying into Bonn, Baker vowed to find out "exactly what the German position is" on a U.S. plan for upgrading 88 Lance nuclear missiles (range: 80 miles), most of them based in West Germany, with new longer-range weapons. That is a touchy subject for West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Modernization has become a hot-button issue in German politics, and Kohl would like to postpone modernizing the weapons until after national elections in December 1990. Already Kohl's Christian Democrats have suffered thrashings in six recent local elections, and his government might not survive an unpopular pledge to accept...
...when the Soviets' Cosmos 954 fell from orbit and burned on re-entry, showering northern Canada with radioactive debris. The only reason no one was hurt was that the impact site was virtually unpopulated. The incident persuaded the Soviets to design more effective safety devices into their nuclear satellites...
Those safeguards were put to a test last September, when the nuclear-powered Cosmos 1900, containing about 70 lbs. of radioactive fuel, began falling out of orbit. But before the satellite re-entered the atmosphere, an automated safety system kicked in. The reactor was separated from the satellite and shot into a higher orbit. If, however, the reactor should collide with a defunct satellite or some other piece of debris left from more than 30 years of human activity in space, it could be knocked out of orbit anyway. Says Daniel Hirsch, director of the Stevenson Program on Nuclear Policy...
While not admitting that any of their nuclear satellites are dangerous, the Soviets boast that their new type of space reactor, called Topaz, is especially safe. Topaz can produce up to 10,000 watts of power, about ten times as much as previous models. That enables Topaz-powered satellites to fly at such high altitudes, say Soviet scientists, that they will remain safely in orbit for up to 350 years, long enough to lose most of their radioactivity...