Chernobyl and Nuclear Power - part I

I'm saying 'Part I' because this is a big topic, and likely best broken down into multiple posts.

There's a technical and a personal part to this, here's most of the personal.
In April of 1986, my late wife and I went (again, for about the eighth time) to Europe on a three-or-four week vacation. we landed in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, on Friday, April 25, 1986. We had a sort-of-interary, but having 3-month Eurail passes and having been through a lot of European territory on other trips, really planned things day-by-day. Well, we had visas/entry permits for USSR/Russia.Ukraine and intended go to first to Kiev, but the news reports when we landed said it was quite gray and cold; so we decided to go the Paris-Madrid way instead, and hook back up into Russia later in the trip. So took the train to Paris, stayed overnight, and then took the next train to Spain.
(Don't let anyone tell you any crap about 'April in Paris'. April in Paris is almost always bloody cold, damp, rainy and rotten. So we kept on going to Spain... (Alicante, on the Med. coast -- really nice). )
Reactor number four at the Chernobyl complex, outside of the town of Pripyat in the Ukraine, about 60 miles NW of Kiev, suffered a catastrophic accident on that Saturday, April 26, 1986, resulting in the worst nuclear accident in history: the only 'Level 7' event on the International Nuclear Event Scale which has ever happened.
As a matter of course, the then Soviet Union denied the event, hid  and denied details of it, and censored and forbade all press coverage or even mention of the event.
We first heard of it when still in Spain, about a week after the event, when the radioactive plume from the Chernobyl plant drifted into Western Europe, was delected, analyzed and its origin determined. This made big headlines in all papers.
Upon travelling back to southern France, we noted then:
the huge fields of flowers, lavender, etc. outside of St.Paul-de-Vance were gone: cut down -- only things growning in greenhouses were left.
When dining in (some really terrific) inns and restaurants there, we were often laughingly encouraged to have 'The Russian Salad' with our meal: canned peas and carrots, since all 'grown-outside' fruits, vegetables, etc. had been ordered destroyed by the French government. A few days later, that fear spread to even hydroponically-grown produce, because of fear of water comtamination. (Likely, all of these concerns were overreactions, but more real data on that later.)
In any case, aside from just being warmer, spending some time on the Spanish seacoast, etc. it likely was an accidentally good decision, not to go directly to Kiev upon arrival...

Ok, So Where Them Neanderthals Go, Anyway?

A recent research study printed in the October issue of "Current Anthropology" strongly suggests that the rather sudden (in geologic time scale) disappearance of the Neanderthals was due to volcanism.
Specifically, the article identifies "the Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption which occurred around 40,000 years ago in modern day Italy, and a smaller eruption thought to have occurred around the same time in the Caucasus Mountains. The researchers argue that these eruptions caused a “volcanic winter” as ash clouds obscured the sun’s rays, possibly for years. The climatic shift devastated the region’s ecosystems, “possibly resulting in the mass death of hominids and prey animals and the severe alteration of foraging zones.” (end)

A New but Difficult Tourist Destination: "Kryptos"

"Kryptos" is a sculpture by Jim Sanborn, done in 1991. It is emplaced on the grounds of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.
The sculpture contains four sections, each of encrypted text. In addition, Sanborn placed around the grounds of CIA headquarters several other pieces, including slabs bearing morse code, the pictures of a compass rose, and a duck pond. Misdirection? Kryptos itself was designed and executed such that it's not possible to photograph or view the entire piece at one time. The decryption of the messages contained in Kryptos have occupied a great deal of 'spare time' and a similar slice of 'computing power' of the greatest information-related organizations in the world, since Kryptos' installation in 1991.
Sanborn worked with a CIA employee named Ed Scheidt, Chairman of the CIA Cryptographic Center, to come up with the cryptographic systems used on the sculpture. Sanborn has revealed that the sculpture contains a riddle within a riddle, which will be solvable only after the four encrypted passages have been decrypted. He said that he gave the complete solution at the time of the sculpture's dedication to then-CIA director William H. Webster. Sanborn said, however, that he had not given Webster the entire solution. He did, however, confirm that where in part 2 it says "Who knows the exact location? Only WW," that "WW" was intended to refer to William Webster. Sanborn also confirmed that should he die before the entire sculpture becomes deciphered that there will be someone able to confirm the solution. How this will take place is unknown.

The ciphertext is in 4 parts/pages. The first three have at considerable effort been decoded. This was made more difficult because Sanborn disclosed that there had been an omission of a character which made the solution more difficult, and he subsequently provided that character.

The first three parts (including intentional misspellings) of the sculpture, when decrypted say:
Part I:
BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION

Part II:
IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO


On April 19, 2006, Sanborn contacted the Kryptos Group (an online community dedicated to the Kryptos puzzle) to inform them that the accepted solution to part 2 was wrong. He said that he made an error in the sculpture by omitting an "X" used to indicate a break for aesthetic reasons, and that the decrypted text which ended "...FOUR SECONDS WEST ID BY ROWS" should actually be "...FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO".
The actual location listed in GPS coordinates is about 200 feet SouthEast of the sculpture itself

Part III:
SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q (?)

This is a paraphrased retelling of Howard Carter's comments on the orginal opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt. The question was posed by Lord Carnavon, to whom Carter replied, "Yes! Wonderful things!"

Part IV:
part IV - which Sanborn explicitly has said depends on the decipherments of parts I-III, has never been deciphered, despite the best efforts of the CIA, the NSA and all their computer resources. There is also a Yahoo Group of more than 2000 members (like the SETI project) who dedicate parralel time on their own computers toward the decipherment of this text.

This likely rates as the most interesting and important unsolved cipher in history.

Incidentally, the public cannot visit or view the sculpture, since it is in the Federally-resticted CIA headquarters in Langley, VA. Not even US Senators are permitted on the site: only those specifically granted clearance by the related agencies are allowed any access to the site at all.

Those not interested in, or offended by firearms, please ignore

Bob Cogan
STI Trojan with new ivory grips

Received today my custom STI Trojan .45 back from Bob Cogan at Accurate Plating and Weaponry,Inc.
http://www.apwcogan.com/
I cannot recommend Bob and his company enough.
The firearm:
Modifications from the original standard STI Trojan 5":

hard-chrome plating
trigger work
complete work-over, disassemly, polishing,beburring, lubrication and reassembly
new wood grips
new magazine guide
replace 5 inch with 6 inch STI barrel and add supporting ramp
custom build single chamber 4-port compensator head (!)
add Burris red-dot optical sight - quick acquistion and the supreme solution for those of us with eyesight difficulties.

Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird"

The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" aircraft -- likely the greatest aircraft every designed and made by man. Designed at the Lockheed 'Skunk Works' by a team headied by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, likely the greatest aircraft designer ever.

Capable of flying at over 85,000 ft (more than 16 miles high), at mach 3+ (over 2,200 mph).

How about:

Los Angeles, CA to Washington, DC in 64 min 20 sec, avg speed 2,144.8 mph (1990 - its retirement flight on the way to a museum in DC)

or

New York to London: 1 hr, 54 min. 56.4 sec (1974) -- your average Boeing 747 flight time is about 6 1/2 hours.

Enough numbers: check the Wikipedia page and any number of other SR-71 pages for photos and info.

This aircraft -- and others like the U-2 -- were tested out of the ultra-secret area just northwest of the Nevada Test Site (nuclear test site), usually named 'Area 51'.

This site is still the most secret and hidden area in the USA if not the world. You can check that out on Google too, but beware of UFO weirdos.

Check the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51

and the independent 'Dreamland Resort' page at http://www.dreamlandresort.com/ for real info.

Since more than 50 years have passed since the start of many of these projects, much has been declassified, and the people sworn to secrecy under penalty of treason are now free to tell stories, and many of those still alive are delighted to finally be able to do so.

It's hard to even understand today the level of secrecy and paranoia surrounding all of this, nuch of which continues.

During the development and testing of the SR-71 (the successor to the U2 which proved vulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles, when pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Russia), no one without a 'TOP SECRET' government clearance was allowed to work on, consult on or even view this aircraft. Even the Groom Lake (Area 51) base personnel without such a clearance were locked in windowless rooms such as their living quarters, when the aircraft was even being momentarily outside. Testing and flights occurred at night, so that Russian (and American) satellites could not photograph the aircraft. And on and on...

Now, one former test pilot for the program has told a great story of one of his flights:

On a test flight of an early, prototype version of the SR-71 flying from Groom Lake toward California, the aircraft suddenly became uncontrollable, flipped upside down and was not recoverable. The pilot ejected safely, and the aircraft crashed.

Uninjured, the pilot (back in his regular USAF uniform the next day) was in a cafe just across the border in California, when a couple of 'good 'ol boys' in a long bed pickup truck pulled up, parked and approached him. They said something like, "Hey, we got your aircraft here." What they had recovered and had in the back of their pickup was the cockpit canopy from the crashed aircraft. At this time, NO ONE without a top secret security clearance had EVER seen even a part of this aircraft. The pilot told them they could not say anything about this to anyone, ever, and told them that the aircraft had a nuclear weapon on board (everyone knew about and was paranoid about this in the 1960's). They agreed, and hung around the cafe while the pilot called his command and the California Highway Patrol, who arrived to confiscate their pickup and hold it until the USAF could arrive to take custody of the aircraft part. Then the FBI arrived on site and took the guys away to their main office in Sacramento, interrogated them, polygraphed them, and had them swear to and sign National Security agreements not to mention any element of any part of this incident, under penalty of treason.

(A treason conviction carries the death penalty and the FBI made sure they understood that this would be the case.)

After that, the FBI took the pilot into custody, interrogated and polygraphed him, and then asked if he would agree to being questioned under 'truth serum' (sodium pentothal). He agreed, of course, since if he refused he'd lose his security clearance and thus his job.

He says in his memoir, that he doesn't remember anything the FBI asked him or what he answered, although it must have satisfied them, but it got him into real trouble with his wife.

The FBI just brought him home, carried him into his house and dropped him on the sofa in the living room. He was still so drugged and 'out of it',  his wife assumed that he had just gone out and gotten drunk. :)

PS: as of the time of writing, he and his wife have been happily married for more than 60 years.

For tecnically-oriented movie fans...

If you've been to a large IMAX Theatre lately, the film being projected on the screen is illuminated by an extremely-high-power xenon short-arc lamp, usually of 15,000 Watts.

The lamp itself is made of fused pure quartz -- the only material that can withstand the high pressures, temperature and high-level light outlet. The electrodes at each end are made of thorium-doped tungsten, and the assembly needs to be circulating water-cooled. The quartz lamp itself is filled with xenon (Xe, a heavy, colorless, odorless noble gas, atomic weight 54), at a pressure of almost 400 psi.

The color spectrum of these lamps is very similar to normal sunlight (very desirable) but with some specific high peaks in the infrared region. In operation, they are similar to high-powered welder's arcs and even momentary unfiltered viewing of the lamp in operation can be enough to cause irreparable eye damage. In practice the entire lamp assembly in enclosed in an explosion and fireproof refrigerator sized housing, with "welder's goggle-strength" viewing ports built in. During the full-power operation of the lamp, significant heat, IR and IV output  and ozone production occurs, so other needed cooling and venting, shutdown mechanisms, etc., are also included in the lamp cabinet.

Lamps are shipped to the customer in multiple-walled, heavily damped and cushioned containers, with the lamp itself inclosed in an explosion-shielding sub-container. (Think of a 400 PSI pressurized glass bomb, and what would happed if it was  banged hard again something.)
Once delivered, technicians upack the lamp from its packing and container, and install the lamp in the cabinet: all while wearing a head-to-toe 'bomb-protective' type suit, in case of lamp failure or accident. The quartz lamp cannot be touched directly by hand in any place, since any skin oils on the quartz will cause a process called 'devitrification', which can lead to spot darkening on the lamp and in the worst cases, catastropic lamp failure. (This is not a good thing: a nice-sized explosion of glass shards of over 1500 degrees F).

When the lamp ages and nears the end of its useful life (1000-2000 hours depending on usage) the operator technicans can tell by tracking the number of hours in service, the percentage of rated output, and the amount of current needed to produce the needed level of illumination. When this happens, the technicians need -- of course -- to power down the lamp/power supply, wait until all cools to room temperature and no ozone build-up is recorded; then the cabinet is opened, the 'bomb-suited' technicians remove the lamp and replace it. The used lamp could technically just be thrown-away: all its component part are innocuous and inert and pose no environmental hazard. Except that they're pressurized bombs made of glass, waiting to go off. As a result, the used lamps are repacked in their original shipping containers and returned to the manufacturer, who (remotely) destroys them. (Incidently, no recycling: none of the sigificant parts such as the tungsten electrodes or the fused quartz globe are reusable).

So, that's one of the behind-the-scenes things at your IMAX (assuming you've got one of the big ones). There are multiple kinds of IMAX theatres, processes etc. -- but that is as they say, another story. :)

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, attribution: Atlant