With all the media hoopla last week about the Perseverance rover, frequently unreported was that its energy source is plutoniumâconsidered the most lethal of all radioactive substancesâand nowhere in media that NASA projected 1-in-960 odds of the plutonium being released in an accident on the mission.
âA â1-in-960 chanceâ of a deadly plutonium release is a real concernâgamblers in Las Vegas would be happy with those odds,â says Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
Indeed, big-money lotteries have odds far higher than 1-in-960 and routinely people win those lotteries.