Letter: Send nuclear waste into space

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2002 | 8:39 a.m.

Am I missing something? Is my federal government telling me it is safer for this country to bury 77,000 tons of lethal poison underground in my back yard for the next umpteen zillion years, and in all good faith predict without a doubt the safety of such a venture? Who wrote this script, Stephen King?

When nuclear waste first became an issue, the thought was to send this excrement into space to the sun to dispose of it. The possibility of rocket failure, however, scared everyone and tabled this obvious solution. Now is the time to reopen this win-win proposal. I don't want this crap in Nevada, California, Michigan, or for that matter, anywhere on Earth.

Rockets could be safely launched from any state, negating the necessity of moving it across the country. The nuclear industry would have new life since disposal would be a reality. We can develop in a relatively short time a safe mode of rocket transport if we want to.

I know what the argument is. What about a rocket failure and the possibility of fallout? But who said we had to send up millions of tons at a time? Put sane amounts of waste into those indestructible containers our government says they can make, and give those billions of dollars to NASA to develop the space disposal program, along with our outer space projects to the stars. For once Americans will get a specific return on investment.

No solution is guaranteed. But science has come a long way since the '60s. Now is the time to put space technology to work. No place on Earth should ever have a weather report of 5,000 degrees and sunny.

ARTHUR KAPETANSKY