Little mentioned about Apollo 13s accident is the plutonium carried on board. The Lunar Module contained a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), that used plutonium-238 as a fuel, in an iridium & graphite/ceramic cask designed to survive the forces of launch from the Saturn V or the possible explosion of the rocket and also its possible re-entry into the Earths atmosphere. The RTG was mounted on the descent stage of the LM and provided electrical power from the heat energy released from radioactive decay to run the experiments that would be left on the Moon forever. With Apollo 13 no longer going to the Moon, that meant the plutonium was on a return trip to Earth. The Atomic Energy Commission intervened during the crisis and made the Mission Controllers job more stressful by not wanting the LM to re-enter and burn up just anywhere on the Earth potentially exposing people to radiation. Mission Controllers reassured the AEC that they would jettison the LM at a time & point where it would re-enter and burn up over the deepest part of an ocean and not have 8 pounds of plutonium wind up in someones backyard. The AEC tracked the LM during re-entry and confirmed that there was no radioactive release into the atmosphere. The RTG cask and whatevers left of the LM now rest at the bottom of the South Pacific near the Tonga Trench. Checks and subsequent investigations by the U.S. Dept. of Energy have not detected any radiation in the area which indicate that the RTG cask is still intact on the ocean floor. The cask is designed to contain the plutonium for at least 870 years and currently there are no plans to retrieve it.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:07:28 +0000
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