STOP CASSINI EARTH FLYBY Karl Grossman's statement at the United Nations Press Club June 24, 1998

U.S. nuclear-powered activities in space are illegal under the international Outer Space Treaty of 1967. The U.S. has been covering its nuclear space flights since 1991 by the Price-Anderson Act, a U.S. law which the U.S. contends would limit liability in the event of an accident-involving Cassini or any another nuclear-fueled space device to $8.9 billion for U.S. domestic damage and just $100 million for damage to all foreign nations.

This is in violation of the treaty's provision that nations "shall be liable" for damage caused by their space devices.

As for consequences of the planned 1998 Cassini Earth "flyby," in the event of what NASA calls an "inadverent reentry"-a crash of the space probe fueled with 72.3 pounds of plutonium dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere-NASA says in its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission that "approximately 5 billion of the estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the time…could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure."

NASA in the report projects 2,300 fatal cancers in the event of such an accident. The report also speaks of plans to--if plutonium rains down on urban areas, for example-"demolish some or all structures," "relocate affected population permanently."

The U.S. government's Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel "Safety Evaluation Report" on the Cassini mission, which I have obtained from Dr. Earl Budin, associate clinical professor of radiology at the UCLA, speaks of the possibility of "several tens of thousands" of cancer deaths.

It notes that in an Earth "flyby" accident because the plutonium canisters "have not been designed for the high speed reentry…much of the plutonium is vaporized" and provides "a collective dose to the world's population."

NASA, not in its publicity statements but in the Final Environmental Impact Report, also concedes a release of much of the plutonium - and as respirable particles.

Meanwhile, the use is moving to deploy weapons in space and to exercise what it terms "space control." This is closely linked with space nuclear power.

As the 1996 U.S. Air Force report New World Vistas states: "In the next two decades, new technologies will allowing the fielding of space based weapons of devastating effectiveness to be used to deliver energy and mass as force projection in tactical and strategic conflict…These advances will enable lasers with reasonable mass and cost to effect very many kills." But, the report notes, "power limitations impose restrictions" on such-based weapons systems making them "relatively unfeasible….A natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space."

In April of this year, the government provided contracts for the development of this spaceborne laser, non-nuclear powered, as a first step.

Meanwhile, the Outer Space Treaty bans deployment in space by any nation of "weapons of mass destruction."

The treaty also states that nations should "avoid " activities that stand to produce "harmful contamination" of "space and celestial bodies" as well as "adverse changes in the environment of the Earth."

As General Joseph Ashy, as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Space Command has stated: "It's politically sensitive, but it's going to happen… Some people don't want to hear this, and it sure isn't in vogue, but-absolutely-we're going to fight in space. We're going to fight from space and we're going to fight into space… That's why the U.S. has development programs in directed energy and hit-to-kill mechanisms."

The U.S. space military approach is detailed in this book, The Future of War: Power, Technology & American World Dominance in the 2lst Century, in which George and Meredith Friedman state that through the domination of space with weaponry the U.S. will dominate the planet below and "just as Europe shaped the world for a half a millennium" by Britain, France and Spain dominating the oceans with their fleets, "so too the United States will shape the world for at least that length of time." They boost the use of nuclear power as an energy source in this regard.

As to future U.S. plutonium-fueled space shots, the U.S. General Accounting Office has just issued a report describing eight of them in coming years. A NASA statement speaks of up to 13. With a 12% failure rate already in both the U.S. and Soviet/Russian space nuclear programs, accidents and disasters are inevitable.

The National Space Symposium, at which the new space-borne laser contract was announced, displayed advertisements of the United States Space Foundation-- "explore the Global Relevance of Space and the interdependence of Civil and Commercial and Military space efforts. It is clear that `space is open for business.'"

I say space must not be declared as "open" for the colossally dangerous, wasteful and illegal nuclear and military "business." Space, as the Outer Space Treaty states, should be used "for peaceful purposes…" According to the UN Treaty signed by the U.S. in 1967, "the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interest of all countries."

Return to NoFlyby Table of Contents

This site is hosted on The Nonviolence Web and is an affiliated Project of Traprock Peace Center (103A Keets Road, Deerfield, MA 01342). Together we explore nonviolence, foster Community, work to end war, promote communication and take initiatives on environmental and justice issues.