Snow, snow, snow!

OK, I have to enjoy it. By evening today, it'll all be gone. And it's still sneaker weather. The birds are loving my feeders, and my cats are loving the view, but not the chill. Two cuddlebugs trying to fit into the space of one!

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Fun facts: Southern Idaho was a proving ground for the Navy in WW2, testing shells. It later became the site of experimental nuclear reactors... One of which went bad so bad that 500 roentgen were reported by first responders. That's LD-50, btw, on ionizing radiation, or, the lethal dose for 50% of everyone who gets it.

How bad was it? The ambulance was too radioactive to use after transporting one nuclear plant employee.

The real mystery, however, remains over 60 years later: What the he** happened? A fully ejected control rod pinned one man to the ceiling of the reactor's Death Chamber (as myd ad called such rooms, after his stint on nuclear subs, etc.). Another lay bleeding. The third? Just dead. But how did the reactor go awry? Sabotage, co-worker hatred, a big effing oops? 

We still aren't sure, because it happened in 1961, and while I've read up on it, opinions vary. One thing is sure: Somehow, a main control rod was completely removed, and the reactor went bye-bye.

Here's teh interesting thing: The rod weighed about 80-plus pounds, and had an automated life/lower system. There wasn't a reason to even be in the chamber. 

Since the three men  on reactor duty died, we'll never know. But it is, IMO, one ofthe bigger unsolved mysteries in the background of US history: What happened in Lost River, Idaho, in 1961? Whatever it was, mourners had to stay 20 feet back from the burial of one man, and the grave of another is marked as "DO NOT" anything in Arlington National Cemetery, which is where I first got a hitn of this story. "And over the river you see XYZ monuments, and here down this row, look, this is where they put this stone..."

Fun fact: Complete removal of the control rod? The power went to 20 gigawatts (20 BILLION) in four milliseconds. (Four one'thousandths of a second, so the time it took me to type a period was about one hundred times longer than that. And I can touch type at 80wpm, break it down.)

What we do know is the reactor was shutdown for the holidays and due for a restart properly. 

And how did a control rod pin a guy to the ceiling? That indicates explosive force. 

Well, the thing is...we don't know. It went boom, people were told nothing for years, and it led to massive re-designs in our nuclear power plant reactors. (Wow, shocker.)

I bring this ypu because guess what? The 1986 Chernobyl incident will hit its 40th anniversary in a few months... and the shell put over the ruins to protect everything? Has a hole in it. And the "100-year" structure didn't make it a decade. Thanks, Russia. Your drone was just fan-fuc*ing-tastic for that. Or, as people in the know say, "How to create a nuclear war without dropping warheads". Radiation doesn't suck ---- it destabilizes you at the molecular level. 

So, what really happened in 1961? Humans not realizing what they were doing, probably. The plant had previosu issues with control rods sticking. One moved 10 cm (4 inches) was enough to send the reactor from dead to boom, another design flaw. And new safety measures were put in place. 

Fun fact: This story is well-known in southern Idaho. They all have theories. Most center on the fact two fo the three operators were men who probably shouldn't have been within 1000 miles of each other on their best days. What do I think? Human stupidity is behind almost all errors, including AI, which is programmed by humans. "Skynet" in Terminator films was designed by humans. Starlink, Skynet, you decide, but I'm gonna be blunt: Natural stupidity is bad enough without artificial intelligence ;-P

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And on that weird note, I'm back to bed to rest up. Bad night. Fibro. You know how it goes.

PUMA POWER to all and to all a good day/night/week!