Grossman has written extensively on nukes in space, i.e. an October 1997 launch from the Kennedy SpaceCenter in Florida of the Cassini space probe with 73 pounds of plutonium on board. For those of you justtuning in, plutonium is rather deadly. Called "the most toxic chemical known to science" by MichioKaku, a professor of Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, less than one-millionth of a gramof plutonium-an virtually invisible particle-is a carcinogenic dose. According to Dr. Helen Caldicott,"one pound, if uniformly distributed, could hypothetically induce lung cancer in every person onEarth." A capricious scenario, you say? Not when you consider that the Russians have a fifteen percentfailure rate with nuclear payloads and the US has already launched twenty-four devices carrying nuclearmaterial into space and three have met with accidents. This includes the infamous Apollo 13, although thenuclear factor was conveniently omitted from the Ron Howard/Tom Hanks film spectacle.