NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the moon

[blugbox]

34. Yes, plenty of things could go wrong...

I would just like to inject some reality into your pessimistic viewpoint, because I love science and space exploration!

If the plant were to melt down Chernobyl style, the loss of life (if the station were to be manned) would be tragic. However, there is no atmosphere or ecosystem to disrupt, and the raw radiation from the sun bombarding the moon daily probably wouldn't blink at the small spike.

Worst case scenario... the thing explodes with the force of a nuclear bomb. It would make a crater... probably much much smaller than the millions of other craters littering the surface. Many of those are from impacts with the force of thousands of nuclear bombs. Do you know the monumental forces it would take to actually alter the moon's orbit?

I am by no means trying to put you down. It may all end up being a waste of money, and it will certainly be filled with difficulty, but I don't quite see how this fits into the "Things that are not to be fucked with" category. We have nuclear reactors all over the place in space, powering our probes and satellites and drones... why would a power station be any different?

EDIT to say I apologize for piling on. I didn't read the many responses before I made my own reply.