http://live.psu.edu/pstory/26939

Yea, so the nuclear reactor on my campus is leaking. It's been fine for 50 years, yet the year I start coming here it leaks.....it's like danger follows me. And people wonder why I try to be prepared for the worst.

I feel your pain I was on Treasure Island in San Francisco for the 89 quake. In the Philippines when Mt Pinatubo blew it’s top. I was in Desert Storm and saw all the evacuees running from the oil well fires. I was in southern California the last time it was on fire also I was in New Orleans for Katrina and Rita. As long as this list is it is an incomplete list I have been in so many different natural and man-made events I quit keeping track. Now every one knows why I keep a well-stocked BOB and am obsessed with bugging out. Damn looking back now I'm really getting paranoid, do you think some ones trying to tell me somthing?

Um, maybe "Don't go to Houston!"?

Just kidding!

-Blast

I have the same problem with an additional slant,,,,,ANYTHING that is weird, strange, or unusual WILL happen on my watch. I am the focus of an investigation now for a hole being in a barge and neither the Capt or myself have a clue of the who, what, when, or where that this occurred.

I don't want to even get near the subject of seeing strange things in my days or nights.

comon now it dosen't happen every day but it does seem to kinda regular.

This is nowhere near "the worst." Dangers of nuclear reactors are deliberately exaggerated by those with an agenda in order to ensure the public reacts in fright to the word "nuclear." Medical MRI machines were initially called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance scanners (NMR). They had to change the name to get people to accept them.

This reactor isn't much danger even if all the water leaks away. It's not a POWER reactor producting large quantities of fission products.

Unimogbert
(former Navy nuke operator)

I agree with unimogbert. It's a nonhazard and you have nothing to worry about. I have toured PSUs reactor and it is a standard TRIGA research reactor, much like the one at Texas A&M and other universities. The water has such low levels of activation products that you could probably drink it without much of a dose consequence.

My advice is to use this as an excuse to drink more beer to flush your system of potential "contaminants". I recommend Otto's brewery as a good place to start.

Greg
(radiation physicist)

Good advice Greg. I like your thinking.

Perhaps there is a bright side. God believes that you can keep your head on your shoulders and your stuff together so that you can help others less fortunate. Small consolation when TSHTF, but it is a purpose for living.

Wishing you better luck in the future!

That's what I figured, but it's just funny how the thing is fine for years until I get here. Never a dull moment in my life.

[quote=Paul810
That's what I figured, but it's just funny how that the thing is fine for years until I get here. Never a dull moment in my life. [/quote]

That's how things happen to me when I'm around software!
Works fine until *I* try it.....

Unimogbert

When I was a freshman at PSU in 1964, a bunch of us (on a tip from a physics major) walked into the reactor building - the doors were open - about 11:00 PM one evening. We wondered about for ten minutes before one of the white-coated denisons discovered us and gave us a tour of the building. I remember the blue glow of Chrenkov radiation surrounding the pile in the pool. That, apparently, was a more innocent time, before concerns about terrorists and maniacs run amok.

The last time I was at Penn State, for a seminar on tax accounting, the reactor was behind cyclon fence with a roll of razor wire on top. There was nothing identifying the building as a "nuclear reactor."

So much for the 'Good Old Days.'

Hey, Mods!!!!

Is there anyway we can pin a thread with Raydarkhorse's current location?

Enquiring minds and all that ..

No offense, Ray....

Reading Raydarkhorse's post, I was reminded of an old Charles Addams cartoon: a short stubby guy (looked like Uncle Fester) was waiting in line to board a ship. He had a suitcase that had stickers on it for the Titanic, Luisitania, Andrea Doria, etc.

Sue

Right now I'm in Atlanta but will be in Birmingham, Al tomorrow I'll be there a couple of weeks and then who knows. If it makes people feel safer I will keep you updated as to when and where I am.

Rats! I'll have to warn my brother in Birmingham and tell him to bug out for a few days... just until the dark clouds pass. lol

Sorta related story, I went to college in Indiana. When I drove from Pennsy across Ohio there would always be a set of dark clouds hanging over the toll booth at the Indiana state line. Ray, you weren't living in Hoosierland in the early 70's, were you?

Naw in the early 70's I was in Germany

Georgia Tech (Atlanta) had a similar research reactor, until 1996 and the 'games' came to town.

My fraternity's house was less than 1/2 block from the reactor, direct line of sight to the containment structure.

I was frequently tempted to switch the position of the N and U in NUCLEAR on the sign on the side of the building.

On the security side, the containment structure was surrounded by cyclone fence with barbed wire... but they gave tours up to '95 when it was de-fueled in preparation for the summer games.