Re: old russian espionage satellites

[Brian McDonald <Brian_mcdonald@xxxxxxx>]

Arclight wrote:

>
> I am just watching a documentation on TV on the russian-american race 
> to space, and they just said that the USSR launched about three dozen 
> espionage satellites with a small uranium-powered generator. If one of 
> these babies would drop down on earth and if it would reach ground 
> level, this would result in a 5KT-explosion. Funny, isn't it ;)   Any 
> ideas if this is useful a s a scenario? =)
>
> Arclight
>
>
Had one fall down into the northern territories a few years ago.  Lead 
to the usual great hooraw whenever nuclear anything is mentioned of 
course.  various people running amok in the media about the world ending 
etc.  turned out to be a case of a couple thousand people wandering 
about getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes and blackflies looking for 
little hot bits of reactor material.  a surprising amount was recovered 
and the rest was left to poison the aforementioned bloodsucking insects.
I have a feeling the 5 kt explosion is a figment of someones fevered 
imagination.  I am sure the americans would have gone utterly ballistic 
had there been any truth to the russians planting several dozen orbital 
wpns which if they could be set off is certainly how they would have 
been viewed.