No, honestly I didn't know the definition of that word. I've never heard anyone called that before. Besides I don't know what reason I'd have for calling him a black child. Seriously. It's clear from the context of the conversation that the only term that logically fits the exchange is the word 'nitpicker'.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

I was looking for the word 'nitpicker'.

Nice Back Peddle Robert.

Any southerner knows what that word implies and I cant see how you as an educated southern man would use it instead of Nitpicker.

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I was looking for the word 'nitpicker'.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Yeah, what I said you picaninny....

Yes I checked your post this time. I suspect you think I am stupid as well

Racist or Not

Definition

Robert it has been brought to my attention that you have shown your true colors. The use of an apparent racial slur is a new low for you..

But I should point out to you the I am neither a child or Black as the true meaning of the word you used was the carniculture depiction of Black Slave Children; therefore, if you are going to use racial slurs in a feeble attempt to offend me try using those associated with my heritage.

If you can't figure out what my heritage is perhaps you can ask someone more mature then you.. Better yet just keep them to yourself, because I truly don't care!!

Furthermore please keep this trash from a thread meant for an entirely different purpose.

edit---my posting was in your quote space for some reason.

That's ridiculous. That is not a racial slur of any kind. I don't know what you're talking about. Some people also believe the word 'picnic' is somehow racist also but the origin of that word is french I believe and didn't originate with american slave auctions. Besides, given your use of the name 'Celtic' why on earth would I think you were black? And I don't care anyway. Also, how do you know I'm not black? Ahh forget it.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Robert it has been brought to my attention that you have shown your true colors. The use of an apparent racial slur is a new low for you..

But I should point out to you the I am neither a child or Black as the true meaning of the word you used was the carniculture depiction of Black Slave Children; therefore, if you are going to use racial slurs in a feeble attempt to offend me try using those associated with my heritage.

If you can't figure out what my heritage is perhaps you can ask someone more mature then you.. Better yet just keep them to yourself, because I truly don't care!!

Furthermore please keep this trash from a thread meant for an entirely different purpose.

Yeah, what I said you picaninny....

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Well, I'm not going to the movie store to rent it...and I'm not going to spend an hour or 4 reviewing websites. Point is, US and western nuke plants have fail safes that are gravity based that were never built into the Soviet systems. Period.

Once again you would be wrong. The Soviet systems did have a gravity based system. The problem is their system was designed to allow the Uranium Rods to drop out of the Barium Rods and to stop the reaction the Rods had to be pushed back in.

US system are designed to PULL the Barium Rods from the Uranium Rods. In case of failure the Barium Rods could be dropped back in.

It is cheaper to allow the Uranium rods to drop from the barium rod. It is safer to pull the Barium Rods and hold them in place from Uranium. Ecomonic vs. Safety.. Thank God for 10-CFR-19.

Well, I'm not going to the movie store to rent it...and I'm not going to spend an hour or 4 reviewing websites. Point is, US and western nuke plants have fail safes that are gravity based that were never built into the Soviet systems. Period.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Come on, now, Cap'n!!! Movies aren't evidence or arguments. We need just science here, not Jane Fonda and fictionalized stuff..

Robert you really need to get out into reality more.

The China Syndrome was based on a REAL scientific theory. In fact many Nukes in the US have built-in systems to prevent the "China Syndrome"..

Before you sprout off go read the entire 10-CFR-19 regs regrading Nuclear power plants in the US.

Three Mile Island, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, March 28, 1979

It almost happened.

And Beethoven, a special thankyou for your post. It provided me with the word, I missed yesterday: Weep...

Yes, I also remember that day back in 1986 clearly. Or not that day, when it happened, but later, when the news about the disaster were exposed, because we in Denmark were informed by the authorities in Sweden, where they thought, they had a leak in one of their nuclear powerplants, because the radiation around it were increased. They investigated the plant and found out that the radiation outdoor were higher than inside the plant, and then they figured out that something terrible had happened. So the news were exposed long time after the event.

And I also remember that even in the climate of the cold war, specialists in radiation medicine from the whole world, specially from USA, went to Moscow to help out with the victims of the radiation.

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Come on, now, Cap'n!!! Movies aren't evidence or arguments. We need just science here, not Jane Fonda and fictionalized stuff..

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

I happened to catch "The China Syndrome" on late night TV last night, the one about Jane Fonda investigating a coverup at a nuclear plant leak and Jack Lemmon as the manager. I think someone was trying to remind us of something.

They should've aired it on Prime Time TV, though.

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No, I got to disagree with you here, Enigma.

The US plant design is entirely different. The cores are gravitationally 'controlled'. I hope a nuclear engineer posts here because I don't have the techie knowledge to properly explain what I want to explain.

Bottom line is...if the exact same circumstances occurred in a US or Western or even Chinese nuclear power plant the meltdown cannot happen because the fail safe mechanisms are reliant upon gravity to 'drop' them so that a meltdown is averted. Soviet nuke plants lacked that design.

Like someone else above posted (I forget who) the Soviets were doing stuff on the cheap.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

What happened at Chernobyl cannot happen in the US, period. We use completely different technology, we have better training and we actually care about safety. Regardless what you may think about money hungry companies, they are not in business to have meltdowns. Power generation in this country is a for profit industry, it doesn't matter if its from Nuclear, Coal, NG, Wind, Solar, or Hydro.

Your post just proves the point, we live in a culture of fear.

How about this one? HasAnyoneSeentheKEYS?? looks like someone forgot to put the keys to the 'secure area' of the nuclear powerplant back in the 'usual spot' (under the pot plant).

The documentary "ZERO HOUR : DISASTER AT CHERNOBYL" provides a interesting step-by-step recreation of the last hours of the Chernobyl incident. For those that have not seen this, if you get a chance take a look, you may find it interesting.

The bottom line from this report (which includes many interviews with engineers and scientists) is that there was a complete breakdown of protocol and process. Human failure, which instigated technology failure.

Could this happen again....? Very likely. Could it happen in the U.S. ? Also very likely. Its not a question of fear, but reality.

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Belief gets in the way of learning

A sad and tragic event.

This reminds me of how close we came to having a similar incident here in the U.S. The events at the Davis-Besse plant should be a warning to the nuclear power industry but are now all but forgotten. As long as corporate profits are more important than public safety the possibility of a similar disaster will continue to threaten those living in areas surrounding these facilities. The hole in the reactor lid was only one of the many problems with the facility.

We want cheap reliable energy, but it has to be green. Nuclear is supposedly dangerous, even though the US & Europe has never suffered a core meltdown. We've been running nuclear reactors in Naval ships over 50 years with out a major incident. I'd say we're doing pretty good.

But of course the Soviets are the people we compare everything to since they are so technologically advanced. I mean hey you've got a government that is notorious for doing things on the cheap, using an inferior reactor design. They shutdown down their aux safety systems while performing a test with the reactor at 25% load. Mind you the type of reactor they were using had a proven history of becoming radically unstable at the 25% threshhold. With no safety systems on line they suffered a very nasty steam explosion that blew out a 1000 ton containment lid like popping the tab on a beer can. Of course lets not forget that in their infinite wisdom they used graphite control rods.

What happened at Chernobyl cannot happen in the US, period. We use completely different technology, we have better training and we actually care about safety. Regardless what you may think about money hungry companies, they are not in business to have meltdowns. Power generation in this country is a for profit industry, it doesn't matter if its from Nuclear, Coal, NG, Wind, Solar, or Hydro.

Your post just proves the point, we live in a culture of fear.

P.S. I live 4 miles from a BWR plant.

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OH MY GOD..! I just bought property there....I think I'm going to be sick. My cat's already developed a single mutant eye! Here's http://messybeast.com/freak-face.htm a link.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

I remember that day vividly. I was a lab assistant at a university and the faculty for nuclear physics was just a few meters across the lawn. The next day a big meeting was held in the main auditorium and professors explained what presumably happened - true information was rare. The weather report suggested that the radioactive cloud would be drifting to north and central Europe. A plan to screen radiation was quickly designed and after a few days the first fallout arrived. Groups of people scanned the city gridwise.

One of them came back very exited and reported it had found a place on the castle's forecourt which showed 50.000 becquerels. A stormy discussion broke out on water rinsing the place toward that point and moss or something absorbing the liquid. The fanciest explanations were put about. Finally a member of the mineralogical faculty overheard the commotion and switched in: "Are you talking about the castle'S forecourt?" - "Yes, why?" - "Because the paving is mostly made of granite. There may be a small lode of pitchblende in it, which often happens. It contains Uranium. So I propose two things: first, go back with a Geiger counter with a Lead foil with a small bar cut out in front of it. Measure the radiation very close to the ground. If it is high when the hole is over a stone, it is pitchblende or something similar. If it is high over a joint, we have a problem. But I rather guess it is the first, and thus, second: note that point and do not place your sunlounger over it the next time an open air concert is given on that place."

He was right. The incident shows how heated up everybody was and how tense we were about any report coming in. But it was also the time when I learned why interdisciplinary work is essential and I never forgot it.

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"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." R.M. Nixon

A sad and tragic event.

This reminds me of how close we came to having a similar incident here in the U.S. The events at the Davis-Besse plant should be a warning to the nuclear power industry but are now all but forgotten. As long as corporate profits are more important than public safety the possibility of a similar disaster will continue to threaten those living in areas surrounding these facilities. The hole in the reactor lid was only one of the many problems with the facility.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Western Nuclear plants are gravitationally constrained. Soviet old science was not.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!