Word: reactors
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Clad in a white coat and cap, a sympathetic Gorbachev and his wife Raisa inspected the reopened facility, in the shadow of the entombed reactor No. 4, and stopped to ask the plant's staff about new safety measures. Gorbachev called the Chernobyl accident "very serious for the whole world," adding, "Through science and technology, we need to give energy to the nation, but safety remains the most important thing." Forty-eight hours later, the first ! unit of a twelve-year-old nuclear-power plant in Armenia was shut down. Under public pressure, authorities conceded that the operation...
Ever since a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite broke apart over a remote region of northern Canada in 1978, the use of atomic reactors in space has been highly controversial. Once again the debate over nukes in orbit has heated up. Last April the Soviets lost control of another nuclear satellite, raising fears that it would fall to earth before they managed to boost the reactor into a safer, high-altitude orbit. Then, at a scientific conference in New Mexico last month, the Soviets said they had begun putting a new generation of powerful reactors in space and were even interested...
...only way to halt that proliferation would be to make space nukes an issue in U.S.-Soviet arms-control talks. Warns Brown: "If we don't stop the use of nuclear-power sources traveling over our heads, we're likely to wake up one day with a nuclear reactor landing on our heads...
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...