The difficulty is that, considering the furor we saw over the Cassini launch--the Cassini probe had a small nuclear-derived system for generating its operating power, a necessity for a trip to Saturn, which many activists saw as a potential disaster in the event of a launch failure--I’m not sure how likely we are to see nuclear propulsion for some time yet. Although for the record, the idea that a launch failure would spray radioactive material all over the state of Florida and sterilize millions of people and animals and toast acres of plant life--a ridiculous claim made by certain environmental activists apparently lacking for daytime employment--is a risk not even worth considering. For the scale of nuclear power needed for the more ambitious applications I have mentioned, the concern is admittedly nontrivial, but the fact remains that perfectly adequate precautions are available and people’s objections have much less to do with legitimate worries about launch risks and much more to do with opposition to nuclear power in the first place. But, I digress.
There was a time when people held nuclear power in such high esteem that they characterized it as a sort of savior of mankind. In retrospect this seems rather silly, especially since nuclear fission itself is a terrific way to obliterate vast swaths of terrain and vaporize millions of people, if you happen to go in for that sort of thing. One wonders if the Chinese heralded the first gunpowder with similar acclaim. But, people will believe lots of things, and if you want a good example of the nuclear-energy-as-hope-for-the-future attitude, you might watch a movie from the 1950’s. This Island Earth should do nicely; if you can’t stomach it, try the MST3K version. (That’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 for all you laymen; they have a riotous good time making fun of bad, paradoxically classic movies.) But, I digress again.
