Perennial "peace-movement" nutcase Bruce Gagnon has finally gotten off his duff and is attempting to put together an anti-nuclear protest of the New Horizons launch:

“We might have escaped Cassini, we might escape New Horizons, but with plans to put nuclear reactors on the Moon to power bases there in the coming years, NASA will be launching a host of these missions. One thing we have learned is that sooner or later, space technology can fail.”

I'm sure that his nemesis, Thomas James, will be all over this.

But why does Bruce have to bravely pick up the styrofoam cudgel on this one? What happened to the Christic Institute, so active during the Cassini launch? They don't even seem to have a web site.

If these things are so dangerous, then why aren't we using them in warfare? Seems to me that if spreading a small amount of plutonium is so bad, then the US would have a few ICBM's loaded with the stuff and aimed at people we don't like.

Uh, Karl, 'ole son - we, ah, DO!

Say it ain't so, Dick!

I was, however, thinking the radiological bomb approach not the more expensive nuclear bomb approach that actually needs some pretty sharp engineering.

But now that you mention it, it's pretty clever hiding that plutonium in those nuclear bombs. I'd have never thought of looking for it there. The nuclear explosion will complete hide the release of plutonium too so the ruskies or whoever won't be able to prove anything. Very clever indeed.