There are lots of high radiation environments people have to deal with. Satellites, Medical Devices, Nuclear power plants, Particle accelerators, and even the type of robots sent in to nuclear disaster areas: http://www.sciencealert.com/the-robots-sent-into-fukushima-h...

I'd personally rather it get asked in a transparent way (like this) vs some programmer making some stupid assumptions in some cube somewhere.

I think the implication was "why is it possible for a programmer to make a stupid assumption". In such a critical environment, one would hope there's oversight and understanding of all of this, eliminating the need to ask on SO.

Why? Where & how would be the right way to ask a question like this?