Feb 26 1995
From The Space Library
Radioactive debris leaking from a large group of orbiting Russian nuclear reactors make up the puzzling clouds of junk orbiting Earth. This is the conclusion of a team of scientific sleuths who have been sifting clues for five years. The clouds, which seem destined to grow, are threatening to wreak havoc in the most crowded orbit in the heavens, roughly 600 miles up. In all, 33 nuclear-powered radar satellites that spied on the movements of Western warships were launched into orbits about 150 miles above the Earth. Afterward, as a safety precaution, Moscow boosted the old reactors into parking orbits roughly 600 miles up. Published designs of the Russian space reactors show they were filled with sodium-potassium coolant. Liquid droplets moving at kilometers a second are just as dangerous to a spacecraft as a solid object. While the drops pose no radioactive health danger to humans, they will force engineers to add more shielding to help protect new spacecraft. (NY Times, Feb 26/95)
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