Re:Those who witnessed Castle Bravo looked into Armageddon
by acidburnNSA on Friday September 10, 2021 @02:24AM
(#28478397)
Nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors do both leverage atomic nuclei, but they are pretty darn different. Dismantling nuclear weapons is unlikely to cause a radiological accident. Before nuclear detonation, nuclear weapons aren't all that radioactive. Nothing like post detonation.
You probably know this, but nuclear reactors, despite how well known various incidents are, are still among the safest, cleanest, and lowest carbon ways to make electricity we know [1]
Re:Those who witnessed Castle Bravo looked into Armageddon
by Johnny555 on Friday September 10, 2021 @03:01AM
(#28478557)
Given the track history of near nuclear accidents, attempting to dismantle all of the existing ones may be statistically more likely to cause an accident, simply in the dismantling process.
Nuclear weapons don't last forever and need to be dismantled/replaced at some point, so dismantling them all doesn't add additional risk as long as it's done over a long enough period that they would have needed to be replaced anyway.
Re:Those who witnessed Castle Bravo looked into Armageddon
by krisoft on Friday September 10, 2021 @03:56AM
(#28478844)
“Dismantling the nukes” doesn’t necessarily mean to monkey with the physical package. You can just change the alert level of the nuclear forces. Instead of paying man and women to operate the silos at hair trigger, you can pay them to move the warheads to storage where they protect them. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition.
Re:Those who witnessed Castle Bravo looked into Armageddon
by lostlogin on Friday September 10, 2021 @03:41AM
(#28478771)
> the San Onofre nuclear power plant got butchered
Have you any link to a good summary? The Wikipedia is interesting but doesn’t make us sound as malicious/scandalous as you suggest.
I'm still mind bogglingly confused at how badly the San Onofre nuclear power plant got butchered that I really think there was sabotage involved. It's hard to believe what happened to the place is all because of sheer stupidity.