71–80 of 81 posts
My house probably burned, we’ll find out in the morning. Family is safe, got out in time and we have a place to stay, so blessed in that regard. We just moved from the Bay Area last year. This isn’t an area in the wilderness, it’s suburbia. This would be like if 600 homes on the edge of Fremont or San Jose burned. Freak situation where we haven’t had rain in 3 months, winds were super high, temps were high for Dec, a…
I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy
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Eh, the place that built the subdivision sues the crap out of anyone that tries to get more testing done. And there's a lot of methodological issues with the tests that they do have. Like using gamma radiation tests for plutonium contamination (plutonium is primarily an alpha emitter as it decays). Also the fuckers had the audacity to name the subdivision 'Candelas'. For those following along at home, Rocky Flats was…
I live in the subdivision. When you purchase a home there you are legally required to be provided and then sign a document that outlines the history of the Rocky Flats plutonium facility. I was provided this document and had to sign it as do every other homeowner here. What I've learned is that people who don't really know anyone that lives there or have never bothered to talk to anyone who purchased homes make assum…
I do respect your opinions, and I didn't want to start hysterics. But the mind goes wondering how all this happened, and where it could lead: a simple grass fire turned into one of the most destructive fires in Colorado's history within hours. That's not something that anyone was prepared to have happened. The mesas here were supposed to act as fire breaks, not fire starters.
I hope you and your loved ones - as well as your neighbors are safe. I'm glad to hear the news of your neighborhood being spared.
My partner is exhausted from covering the story for the NYT, as well as just this year. Overhearing her on the phone (paraphrasing, and terribly): "as a local reporter, I just want to grieve with everyone else, but here I am, needing to scrape open again freshly minted wounds".
About three years ago I had to do a bunch of research on fire resistant construction for a project. I came across something that is fantastic. Part of me doesn't understand why this isn't a requirement in fire-prone areas, if not every home and building.
This is the product we used, of course, there are other manufacturers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVWVP3tKlZc
No affiliation at all other than being a customer. Yes, we conducted our own tests before making the decision.
It won't resist flames forever, but it absolutely delays the maximal burn event. In addition to this, it provides a potentially significant delay of the spread from structure to structure, particularly if the gap between structures is reasonable (say, 10 ft or more).
In speaking to LA County permit authorities I learned that one of the problems using advanced technology is that the bureaucracy of the system gets in the way. It's truly sad. The way the engineers put it to me translates to: If we don't have a checkbox, you can't use it. Seriously.
The only way to use it is for YOU to foot the bill and pay to conduct all the tests required to add the product to the approved materials list. This process, again, due to the bureaucracy, could take years. And, BTW, much as is the case with a lot of things in the US, obtaining approval in one county does not automatically allow someone to use it outside that county. Sometimes I think the US is a bunch of independent little kingdoms, much more so than a country.
In our case we could not obtain approval because the material was not on the list. We provided tons of proof, even getting the CEO's of various intumescent coating companies involved. The approvals are very weird, for example, a product might be approved for outdoor use and not approved for indoor applications. No, not because it won't work or is toxic. More often than not it is because the tests were not conducted for that particular application and you are out of luck. You might be approved to paint your walls with this stuff but are not allowed to coat your framing, rafters, etc. with it. Crazy.
We ended-up working around these barriers because this was a DoD project. They simply pulled rank and that was that.
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The remediations are massive concrete structures covering large swaths of the ground. A brush fire being pushed by heavy winds isn't going to do anything to it. Additionally the large subdivision was not built on the site but surrounding the perimeter to the site. The core site is off limits to anyone as a precaution to prevent anyone from tampering with the remediations or deliberately vandalizing them. Surrounding…
But what about the several plutonium fires during Rocky Flats operation and the associated plumes of contamination to the immediate south then east of the plant?
Ironically my neighborhood is right off of 72 and 93 and is completely white on the map.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_contamination_fr...
Note that this Wikipedia article isn't up to date and has some biased editing. For example Rocky flats refuge has been open to the public for a couple of years now. The article has the typical antinuclear activist tactic of FUD.
As a person who has to deal with climate change related incidents like the fire yesterday, I have huge animosity towards anti-nuclear activists.
The same people who have been protesting everything nuclear for decades are the ones complaining about climate change now without seeming to understand that all of the Western world would be like France now if not for them. The fire we are ringing our hands about potentially causing contamination probably would not have happened if not for these activists destroying the reputation of nuclear power over several decades.
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I live in the subdivision. When you purchase a home there you are legally required to be provided and then sign a document that outlines the history of the Rocky Flats plutonium facility. I was provided this document and had to sign it as do every other homeowner here. What I've learned is that people who don't really know anyone that lives there or have never bothered to talk to anyone who purchased homes make assum…
> When you purchase a home there you are legally required to be provided and then sign a document that outlines the history of the Rocky Flats plutonium facility. I was provided this document and had to sign it as do every other homeowner here. Let me guess, a document that also indemnifies the developers? > As you pointed out plutonium is indeed in alpha emitter rather than gamma. It's also extremely heavy and oxidi…
Again, I have huge animosity towards antinuclear activist because they have completely sealed our grave when it comes to climate change. We could all be like France now if not for them.
It should be noted that the super fund site was cleared by scientists from the EPA, scientists from the state of Colorado, and scientist from Jefferson County separate from their public health division. Decades of testing have been done. Colorado State University has also done extensive independent testing.
The mainstream scientific organizations have concluded that it is a safe area. The same people who attack vaccine hesitant people for not following scientific authorities and instead embracing fringe scientists have embraced fringe scientists and opposed scientific organizations on this exact topic. It is truly hypocrisy.
https://patch.com/colorado/arvada/state-reviews-results-late...
This article details a Colorado State University and Colorado state government review of the soil samples that the Broomfield City council used as an excuse to embrace the whims of anti-nuclear activists. (You can say this isn't rooted in anti-nuclear activism all you want. I live here and I know exactly who the protesters are and what their thoughts are on nuclear power. I have yet to meet a single person protesting Rocky flats who also happens to believe nuclear power is okay. There aren't any.)
"In a 28-page report, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment determined that "remaining Rocky Flats plutonium in the Jefferson Parkway transportation corridor and offsite poses a small risk, well within regulatory limits for radiation."
The report included an independent review by Colorado State University researchers."
"The health risk associated with remaining radionuclides is very small," the report reads. "The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Colorado Central Cancer Registry studies have not detected an overall pattern of cancers tied to Rocky Flats. However, interest in Rocky Flats remains strong."
The soil sample study, which was conducted by the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, began in May 2019. In August, the highway authority notified state public health officials of inconsistent testing results in one sample, which showed elevated plutonium levels. A second test from the same sample showed a much lower level, the authority said."
Note that that the above sentence is something showing that you fell into media misinformation based on an initial take without follow up.
When you live in Colorado at a high altitude, there are two sources of radiation that are all around us. The sun, where we get far higher UV exposure than others at lower elevations, and the naturally occurring uranium/radon in the rocky soil. I own a Geiger counter from a trip I took to Chernobyl many years ago. (My last company had an office in Kiev and I had to go there quite a bit). I really appreciate the lecture on the wildlife surrounding Chernobyl. I bet you haven't been there but I have.
There's a constant background radiation in Colorado. But guess what: Like the rest of the state the incidence of cancer is far lower than in the rest of the country. My family in Southeastern Virginia lives in an area with vastly higher rates of cancer than where I do.
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I live west of Rocky Flats. I actually walked onto the now refuge that surrounds the plant tonight and took photos of the fires in the distance. It should be noted that the contaminated areas of Rocky flats are extremely secure and buried under massively overbuilt layers of concrete containments. The EPA milked the site for super fund money for probably a decade longer than it needed to for the cleanup. If you're won…
The remediation started in 1997, and ended in 2006, so I'm not sure how it could have lasted an extra decade given that it didn't last an entire decade total. And that was using only $7B of the original estimate of $35B.
The data should be driving these decisions instead of the paranoia of anti-nuke idiots.
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But what about the several plutonium fires during Rocky Flats operation and the associated plumes of contamination to the immediate south then east of the plant?
If you look at the map of that plume, you see that it was most heavily concentrated in areas miles to the east. Ironically my neighborhood is right off of 72 and 93 and is completely white on the map. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_contamination_fr... Note that this Wikipedia article isn't up to date and has some biased editing. For example Rocky flats refuge has been open to the public for a couple of y…