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When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

practical.engineering

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Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#81

Post by foobarbecue »

PaulHoule wrote: post #59
foobarbecue wrote: post #19

I did a sort of internship at Los Alamos which involved building some drones. A year or two later I got a call from my advisor there, out of the blue asking me if I had anything immediately available that could do recon underground effectively. I didn't really, so I declined. I asked what they needed it for and he said it would be easier if I got the info from the news. That was kinda terrifying ... turned out to be…

I went to school in New Mexico and had really mixed feelings about the culture around Los Alamos and Sandia. There are a lot of brilliant people there both in terms of science and project management. However, the best person I knew got driven out. But I think also a lot of nepotism and a security clearance culture that filters out really interesting people and leaves behind the dangerously milquetoast.

Me too, phd at NM Tech. Loved being in Socorro. You?

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#82

Post by DoctorOetker »

formerly_proven wrote: post #8
tape_measure wrote: post #2

I'm submitting this based on the current top item "North Dakota law lists fake critical minerals based on coal lawyers' names" [0]. This accident was traced to a manager transcribing "inorganic absorbent" as "an organic absorbent". A more serious example of the need to have competent people with domain knowledge in the room and empowered when documents are written. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492161

Inflammable means flammable? What a country!

inflammation of a tissue is when it is rendered inflammable /s

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#83

Post by crote »

coryrc wrote: post #66
PaulHoule wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second accident here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accidents was an example of where that "empowerment" went wrong. It is usual for workers in Japanese factories to make continuous improvements in process for quality and cost and it is usually a good thing... but criticality accidents involve invisible dangers and "following procedures strictly" in that kind of work saves lives. Notably Japan ha…

> leader in nuclear accidents since the 1980s I also want to put things in perspective: far, far more people are dying from fuckups with fossil fuels, but like "Florida man" (Florida has a law that crime reports must be published) we actually report and collect accidents involved in Nuclear production, so you can see every mistake. But you don't see mass protests because natural gas infrastructure failed in Texas and…

The main difference is that tiny mistakes in the nuclear industry can have massive consequences. A seemingly-trivial change can lead to continent-sized damages and permanent condemnation of city-sized areas of land.

Accidents in the fossil fuel industry are far more localized. Sure, you can blow up your own plant and kill a bunch of people, but it's not too hard to clean up the mess afterwards. Even something as horrific as the Deepwater Horizon disaster won't have much of a residual impact 10 years down the line.

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#84

Post by butvacuum »

echelon wrote: post #42
gambiting wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could, if they were specced correctly. Wasn't the story that they intentionally requested robots hardened against lower radiation level than required to not disclose the true extent of the catastrophe? So the German company that built them underspecced the shielding and so they died quickly.

> specced Totally orthogonal, but you just reminded me of a pet peeve I have. This word is correct, but I can't stand it. I wish we spelled this "specked", even though that has a homonym. Like trafficked, panicked, frolicking, etc. "specced" makes my brain wince.

specked means to have specks. It is an entirely different word.

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#85

Post by coryrc »

crote wrote: post #83
coryrc wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> leader in nuclear accidents since the 1980s I also want to put things in perspective: far, far more people are dying from fuckups with fossil fuels, but like "Florida man" (Florida has a law that crime reports must be published) we actually report and collect accidents involved in Nuclear production, so you can see every mistake. But you don't see mass protests because natural gas infrastructure failed in Texas and…

The main difference is that tiny mistakes in the nuclear industry can have massive consequences. A seemingly-trivial change can lead to continent-sized damages and permanent condemnation of city-sized areas of land. Accidents in the fossil fuel industry are far more localized. Sure, you can blow up your own plant and kill a bunch of people, but it's not too hard to clean up the mess afterwards. Even something as horr…

Let me know how "not too hard" it is to clean this up: https://earthjustice.org/feature/coal-ash-states/virginia x50 states.

> A seemingly-trivial change can lead to continent-sized damages and permanent condemnation of city-sized areas of land.

Chernobyl wasn't a "seemingly-trivial change" -- it was several successive groups all choosing to do the worse-possible thing, and it still killed and harmed fewer people than the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#86

Post by janez2 »

foobarbecue wrote: post #19

I did a sort of internship at Los Alamos which involved building some drones. A year or two later I got a call from my advisor there, out of the blue asking me if I had anything immediately available that could do recon underground effectively. I didn't really, so I declined. I asked what they needed it for and he said it would be easier if I got the info from the news. That was kinda terrifying ... turned out to be…

you have a "si" tracking parameter in the youtube link

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#88

Post by consumer451 »

> It’s almost unbelievable that we entrust ourselves - squishy, sometimes hapless bags of water, meat, and bones - to navigate protocols of such profound complexity needed to safely take advantage of radioactive materials.

This type of thought rings more and more true to me as I grow older.

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#89

Post by nick49488171 »

macintux wrote: post #40
hinkley wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried my dad’s grape nuts once and I never felt the gulf between us wide as I did in that moment. WTF, man.

Lots, and lots, of sugar helps.

it's the only breakfast thing I can get my kids to eat that doesn't have sugar in it, besides scrambled eggs & bacon.

When combined with a good tasting milk, I like them quite alot

Re: When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

#90

Post by PaulHoule »

foobarbecue wrote: post #81
PaulHoule wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to school in New Mexico and had really mixed feelings about the culture around Los Alamos and Sandia. There are a lot of brilliant people there both in terms of science and project management. However, the best person I knew got driven out. But I think also a lot of nepotism and a security clearance culture that filters out really interesting people and leaves behind the dangerously milquetoast.

Me too, phd at NM Tech. Loved being in Socorro. You?

Undergrad, Physics, class of '92. Did physics PhD at Cornell and wound up working as a software dev in the social science department!
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