Tom, Amazing travelogue! Thanks for posting it. I recall vividly the utter BS that was circulated about the "benign accident" at the time. See http://www.uic.com.au/nip22.htm for one example. This report is from the Australian Uranium Information Center, which appears to be an industry shill organization that was still in denial in 2001. They claim 31 people died on-site and no more than 10 since from radiation effects. National Geographic broke the real story in May, 87, and followed it up in August '94. They claimed about 400,000 deaths in those extremely well-researched pieces. Reading those expose`s should be required for all politicians that think that reactors are a good idea. I remember reading the first NG article (in a dentist's waiting room) as one of those "Holy Shit!" moments. I recommend that you look it up. Controlling reactors and power grids share similar problems: The more lightly loaded they are, the squirrelier they get. In the case of reactors, some of the control laws reverse under lightly loaded situations and turn negative feedback into positive feedback, which is an unqualified bad thing when plutonium is involved. The dirty little secret of the nuclear industry is that they have never tested reactors under all possible conditions, because destructive testing is inconvenient to an extreme. Load dumps can be highly "entertaining" when dealing with the thermal inertia of thousands of tons of reactor/vessel/cooling system running maxed out. My office was 40 feet and 1/8" of plate glass from a 2MW research reactor for 10 years when I worked for the University of Wisconsin. I am glad I don't work there anymore. Anyone that thinks these things are absolutely safe should research Chernobyl, Brown's Ferry, Three Mile Island, the Canadian NSX meltdown and other "problems" these beasts can have. I have heard from some ex-Navy Nukee types that the military (both ours and the Soviets) have had some "classified" difficulties along these lines as well. It is a truly scary business and deserves to die, in my decidedly un-humble opinion. Even "Too cheap to Meter" electricity isn't worth it. Edward Gisske, P.E. Gisske Engineering 608-523-1900 gisske@offex.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom" To: Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 11:12 AM Subject: [OT]: Other interesting world news > The "blank email message" thread evolved into a discussion of differing > world views. I find some of these very interesting because I get to hear > *directly* from world citizens who speak about what the world looks like > from their perspective. > > Here in the US (rant mode on) the "press" only publishes stories that sell > more advertisements. So we don't often get a good view of what it's like > on the street in Montevideo. Or Sydney. Or where ever. > > Here's a first person account of what "life" is like in Chernobyl. > > http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/page2.html > > Nothing short of fascinating. I've seen nothing like this since the > meltdown so many years ago. > Tom > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu