It's not just a job, it's an adventure...

Started by Harvey Birdman, July 29, 2007, 03:08:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Harvey Birdman

Some highlights from an employment ad on the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle web site -

**************
Radiation Specialist: Weapons of Mass Destruction/ Radiological Calibration Specialist, Class Code: RD02-11823 Governors Office, Cheyenne...Perform as the WMD/Radiological Calibration Specialist by providing maintenance and calibration (M&C) for approximately 3000 radiological survey and detection instruments distributed throughout Wyoming including providing support and guidance for the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security (WOHS) with its responsibilities and duties with radiological/nuclear terrorist threats, attacks and countermeasures such as identifying, reacting, detecting and implementing immediate countermeasures to thwart a radiological/nuclear attack and providing immediate and critical information to assist with the decision making in the protection of all citizens in the event of a radiological/nu- clear accident/attack both terrorist and natural/man made... .
******************

3000 sites in the state. Somehow I don't think those are nuclear power generators. And don't you love the implications of that 'radiological attack' from 'natural' causes? Yup - mother nature is gonna nuke Cheney's ranch.

:D :D

Will

what did I say, Fallout is the ultimate way for all of us to prepare. Into the vault me brothers. But hey some body has got to do the job..
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

old_blaggard

http://www.terragen.org - A great Terragen resource with models, contests, galleries, and forums.

Harvey Birdman

Let's see - 3000 sites, and I think the state population is around 300,000. So that's about 1 nuke for every 100 people. Of course there may not be exactly a 1:1 ratio of monitors to potential sources, but they probably don't put monitors where there isn't anything to (potentially) monitor. Still, 1 for every 100 people or so... eesh.

There's an Air Force base in Cheyenne - Warren AFB. It's massive, but it doesn't even have an air strip. No fighters or bombers are stationed there. It does, however, have models of several types of missiles standing inside the gates where the public can see them.

;)

Inscrutable

I'm guessing that there are significantly fewer than 3000 sites.  3000 instruments, yes, but it makes sense that you'd have to have several at each site.  In fact you'd probably need quiite a large number at each site in order to measure various types of radiation and (in the worst-case scenario of a leak) extrapolate direction and rate of spread of radiation.  This would mean that the actual number of sites would be a lot lower than 3000.

(Plus, you have to factor in the stockpiles backup equipment that they surely have and that must fall within the 3000 as it too would require regular maintenance).

But I have to say, what a dull sounding job!  Day-to-day maintenance would be pretty boring, plus they'd slap the US equivalent of the (British) "Official Secrets Act" on you so you couldn't even tell anyone about it!  ::)

Harvey Birdman

#5
Yeah, you're echoing my thoughts. I bet the number is pretty significant, though. The old trident philosophy would have split available warheads into land, sea and air-based contingents, and the land - based ones are largely in this area. Western South Dakota, eastern Montana, Wyoming and eastern Colorado are home to thousands of nukes. There are MX missiles running around from launch site to launch site on underground railroads, and fixed launch locations by the hundreds; all sorts of stuff we never hear about.

<edit>
I just looked at the Wikipedia entry on mx missiles. According to that, the last ones at Warren were decommisioned a couple of years ago. There are still the Minutemen, but the mx's are gone. Or so says Wikipedia. The minuteman entry says they've been (or are being) reconfigured to only carry a single warhead. So the total number of warheads must have decreased from somewhere around 2000 (10 per mx, 3 per minuteman) to 500 or so. I feel better.  ;D
</edit>

Will

but how will we counter the giant asteroids! we need those.
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.