Yes, but as Stuxnet showed, that doesn't make them impervious.
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Have they gotten to the part where the sniper takes out a guy in Pripyat??
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I flew a cattle inspector from Texas to Florida once a month for 4 years. Center routed us over a nuclear power plant in Arkansas consistently. I never would, but a pilot could easily fly into a nuke plant. It would probably be similar to a fly hitting a windshield though. :-)
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Perfect analogy.
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If you've ever flown out of Harrisburg, PA you fly directly over the cooling towers of 3 Mile Island on take off sometimes to the point you would be able to see to the bottom if the weren't so dark.
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Gotta love Communism.
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Listened to the chapter 3 podcast today. Very interesting background. They had an opening scene with the director of the nuclear plant in the hospital that got cut. They felt background on the people’s personal motives wasn’t necessary with only a 5 show run.

The real life Director was in a nuclear accident while working on a reactor on a submarine. Supposedly got a lethal dose. He didn’t die. The producer was saying the future director felt that nuclear radiation fears were overblown since. That explains why he was so slow to act and why he sent the engineers to their deaths.

After the accident on the sub, he wore the same clothes home. His kid welcomed him home with a big hug. His kid died of luekiema within a few years. The director says it had nothing to do with the accident because he’s still alive. Just chance his kid got cancer and died shortly after the accident.
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Also remember modern reactors have a lot of passive cooling and the design of reactors is different from what is in the West and Japan and the old Soviet era reactors.
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Also interesting on the issue of sufficiency of the response, all the work of those naked miners constructing a firewall between the plant and groundwater in case of meltdown was completely unnecessary.

A leviathan effort out of abundance of caution. An irony borne of tragedy.
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3rd highest rated podcast in the world on I-Tunes right now. Seems like word of mouth is propelling this show.
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this is the same system that used nuclear bombs to excavate land for civil engerining projects to save time. Even in the 60’s they exploded a nuclear bomb to created a hole to build a lake for water and recreation. Encouraged people to swim in it to prove it was safe.

They did nuclear tests near population centers in the 50’s on purpose to study the effects of radiation on its citizens.

But, our hands aren’t clean either. We gave syphillis to innocent black people involuntary, to study its effects on humans. Even when a cure was available.
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i occasionally wonder what kind of atrocities would come out if the government were to be overturned by a new order.
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Do what now?
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There are some radicals that believe the guy responsible for the radar array knew it was a failure and ordered the meltdown so the Russians would have to shut down the nearby radar and nobody would know that it was a remarkably expensive bust.

I think it's the sort of thing that Ukranians say when they're trying to say that the Russians would murder all of them for a hamburger if the offer was made...
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I'm no fan of communism or socialism, but the same thing could also happen in a completely capitalist environment. For somewhat similar reasons, usually due to uninformed dumb extroverted leaders.
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