Scott Meyer
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How to Reflect Fondly on Days Gone By
🕑 Added 2023-08-28 07:00:02 +0000 UTCFor those who are unfamiliar with Hanford, the Wikipedia page might make for interesting reading.
Part of that article talks about the decommissioning of one of the reactors, and includes the following juicy little nugget. “This involved the removal of hundreds of tons of asbestos, concrete, steel and contaminated soil.”
Radioactive asbestos. We truly live in an age of wonders.
I grew up far enough away from Hanford that we couldn’t literally see it on the horizon or anything, but close enough that you never totally forgot it was there. I did, indeed, take the tour as a kid, and the tour guide (A cousin of mine) did silently discourage me (not my brother, as shown in the comic) from using the drinking fountain.
Years later, I drove that same cousin to work. It did not take me long to notice I was driving toward a massive column of what looked like smoke. Here’s a picture of the exact thing I saw.
I mentioned that I found it unnerving. My cousin said it wasn’t an explosion or anything, just a release of steam. I said it was still unnerving, and asked if the steam was radioactive.
I did not find her shrug particularly comforting.
Comments
Kevin v
I was a summer intern at a nuclear plant in the late 90's (different one than Hanford). I was great at forgetting to turn in my dosimeters. I also got paid to write FORTRAN code (not code that ran the equipment!) Also my first (and only) time I had a psychological exam & background check before getting hired. Nuke plants (at that time) had a 2 or 3 part steam cycle. The inner, radioactive, part made steam in a closed loop where the water/steam isn't released, and the heat from that steam is extracted to make more steam in a separate non-radioactive loop. That should be the only steam released but who knows...
Casey
The handlebar mustache is KILLING ME. A piggyback ride would be like riding a Harley. Love it!
