10-07-2016, 03:35 PM
quote:
Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge
which government?
Our government for one:
When it comes to the Government and nuclear testing,
history shows the problem has not just been a fallout of
radiation, but a holdout of facts. Information has come to
light that officials of the U.S. Government were aware that
fallout from nuclear blasts would contaminate areas that were
hundreds, even thousands, of miles away.
No argument from me... when I first started working at a DOE lab in 1988 (after a decade in commercial nuclear power plants), their attitude toward radiation safety was APPALLING. I think the Cold War had warped their attitude... when failure of your primary mission (deter a nuclear strike by the Soviet Union) would result in the death of virtually every American man, woman, child, puppy...well, a lil' ol' radiation here and there doesn't seem like such a big deal, now does it? Around 1991 a enough "incidents" had occurred (Rocky Flats was the last straw, but SL-1 will always be my favorite)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1
...that Congress finally tore into them (no small coincidence that they Soviet Union fell around then) and they became positively OBSESSED with radiation safety... confusing times for all involved. Now they are so safety-conscious that they can barely function, but that's not my problem anymore. [
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