I remember in one of my chem labs we used this device that was similar to a gieger counter. Can't remember what it was called exactly, something like a gamma spectrometre, anyways, it was supposed to measure the amount of radiation given off by a source via a small sensor mounted in the end of a rodlike device. My professor had a small batch of mushrooms that were from outside of Chernobyl. I rememeber distinctly the ambient radiation graph looked pretty mild, but the second that sensor got anywhere near those shroom the graph would ceiling out, because the amount of radiation being recieved was greater than what the device could handle.

If it does kill you right away, it'll be a slow, agonizing death; if it doesn't, you'll probably develop all kinds of painful cancers that will kill you in a few years.

I'm guessing that based on our proximity that we would have maybe 45 minutes.

I am aware of the events that you describe. It's hard to be so close to one of these things and not research it at least a little bit.

The people in the outer ring would really suffer.

-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org
How many toes does a fish have?
How many wings on a cow? I wonder, yep. I wonder!

If something should happen I imagine I will quickly take on the form/shape of a cinder.

This is a very common opinion, from what I've seen, but an incorrect one. Many people seem to assume that if a nuclear power plant had a failure, it would be equivalent to a hydrogen bomb and destroy the surrounding area instantly.

The way a core meltdown really works is exactly like the name suggests -- the nuclear core's restraints fail, and it is so hot that it instantly melts through its container and down into the surface of the earth, simultaneously vaporizing the water near it. The now-radioactive steam comes up through the surface of the earth and saturates the surrounding area with more radiation. If it does kill you right away, it'll be a slow, agonizing death; if it doesn't, you'll probably develop all kinds of painful cancers that will kill you in a few years.

That's not to say that I'm against nuclear power plants, I just think they should be built away from civilized areas and with uncountable levels of redundancy. ;-)

Hmm...can I just order a dozen of 'ya. You know, in case the lights ever go out or to just be used as lighting markers?

Knowing there is a "glowing personality" joke in here somehwere... ;P,
Ray

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9700 Pro installed; now where is my Barton???
http://users.ign.com/collection/RayMarden
HELLO!?! The *fish* have wings and the *cows* have toes!

Davis-Besse started leaking boric acid in 1996. Between 1998 and 2000, the leakage began causing problems for other equipment. In 1999, FirstEnergy, the corporation that operates Davis-Besse, found traces of rust particles in the filters of radiation monitors. These filters, which sample the air inside the reactor's containment structure, are normally replaced every two to three months. When the leakage began, the filters had to be replaced every day.

"That should have been a sign that something was not right here," Lochbaum said.

FirstEnergy ignored photographic evidence documenting rust seeping from the reactor head as early as April 2000, Ryder said.

So if I'm reading this correctly, this problem was known about for 7 years!?!

Wanting to be a X-Men, too!

Get in line pal! Step one requires a move cross country to live in the shade of the cooling towers:

http://www.stockpix.com/stock/humanendeavors/7875.htm

It's not that bad really. We don't need streetlights, we glow enough to light the roads

-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org
How many toes does a fish have?
How many wings on a cow? I wonder, yep. I wonder!

The photograph was taken through a viewfinder that uses a combination of moving images taken behind the wearer to give a transparent effect.

Yeah the guy has technology that macros photoshop transparant functions in realtime (on colour replace)

Heh; I have never received one of these, I never even knew about them. Then again, I have always (except when forgetting, usually after installing new hardware :)) used a router and/or ZoneAlarm Pro.

Wanting to be a X-Men, too! :(,
Ray

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9700 Pro installed; now where is my Barton???
http://users.ign.com/collection/RayMarden
HELLO!?! The *fish* have wings and the *cows* have toes!

so our nuclear power plants bother you more than north korea, who is making direct threats against us, while we go to war with the "dangerous" iraq... you kids are dumb

That's cool bronco, you'll be the first x-man. looks like ive got to start building sentinals now.

Internet Relay Chat.

Doh! Even though I've never done the IRC thing, I have heard of it and don't know why my brain couldn't make the connection this morning. For some reason I thought it was just another computer or networking acronym that I didn't understand.


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Of course I could be wrong... but really, what are the chances of that happening twice?

They did such a good job exposing things, they were fired!

I live so close to a nuke plant that I really don't worry about it. If something should happen I imagine I will quickly take on the form/shape of a cinder.


-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org
How many toes does a fish have?
How many wings on a cow? I wonder, yep. I wonder!

This comment was edited on Feb 6, 16:22.

That would tell me tho, that either the NRC doesn't have enough people to do it's job, or massive corruption.

Funny you should mention that. I was reading an article on Wired the other day about 2 guys hired by Los Alamos to look into problems there. They did such a good job exposing things, they were fired! Thankfully the press got wind, the men were rehired, and other people behind the cover-up were fired.

Full story here:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56596,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57133,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57295,00.html

I did read that. It is pretty damned scary; I did learn something intresting...boric acid eats high-carbon steel quickly.

That would tell me tho, that either the NRC doesn't have enough people to do it's job, or massive corruption.

First off I don't know what an IRC server is.

Internet Relay Chat.

Here is a client:

http://www.mirc.com

Kind of like the in game chat you find in many fps games.

Lots of 'channels' that are related to newsgroups/filesharing/etc.

Any time I've turned on the XP firewall I've had trouble connecting to lots of things, so I turned it off.

As for Shields UP! - Steve Gibson seems to have just as many critics as fans these days.

edit - is, us, whatever


-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org
How many toes does a fish have?
How many wings on a cow? I wonder, yep. I wonder!

This comment was edited on Feb 6, 15:00.

Hey hey hey! You said you were done posting here last night...

promises, promises...


edit: To fredster in post 16, NOT Hammer in post 17...


This comment was edited on Feb 6, 15:03.

Anybody read this? That's a pretty scary story...

Pre-emptive attacks on North Korea's nuclear facilities would trigger a "total war," the communist state warned Thursday after U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld labeled the North's government a "terrorist regime." Ri Pyong Gap, a spokesman and deputy director at the North's Foreign Ministry, told the London-based Guardian newspaper that the impoverished country was entitled to launch a pre-emptive strike against the United States.

http://www.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDIA/xv/oc.html

It's a cool piece of technology that works in realtime, but you need a projector to project the image of what's behind the person, onto their photosensitive jacket.

I think the page is getting hammered now though.

Well, it's secure enough to make connecting to an IRC server a 5 minute struggle for me.

Ok, I'll admit that I don't understand what you mean here. First off I don't know what an IRC server is. Are you saying that it's hard to connect to one with a machine using the XP firewall, or are you saying it takes five minutes to hack into an XP machine's IRC server that's using the XP firewall. I'm just asking because Zone Alarm locked up my computer "real good like", so I use the built in XP firewall. I did go to the Shields UP! page - https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 - and for what it's worth, it passes these tests.

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Of course I could be wrong... but really, what are the chances of that happening twice?