TESTING THE NUCLEAR ROCKET?

NASA and the Department of Energy (DoE) are moving forward with plans to develop the nuclear rocket (Project Prometheus). DoE has three sites in mind to field test the nuclear engines - White Sands Missile Base, N.M.; the Nevada Test Site, and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The obvious problem is that radioactive exhaust could be released into the atmosphere after testing. The whole plutonium production process at DoE labs is also problematic. DoE has a horrible track record in this regard. Then finally there is the possibility of a launch failure that could see the nuclear rocket falling back to Earth similar to the Russian Mars '96 mission that never achieved proper orbit and fell back to Earth burning up on reentry. The spacecraft spread deadly plutonium over the mountains of Chile and Bolivia at the time. We say NO to the nuclear rocket!