(no subject)

[camwyn]

I"m awake, and I have felt better. I believe this may be a hormone thing and thusly have packed a second pair of trousers along in a suitably large purse just in case. (Well, actually they're there because I've got a family birthday tonight, but this way I feel at least moderately practical, too.)

Stayed up way too late finishing the post-apoc story. I don't know if it's going to be related to my eventual Empty World scenario- I still need to get someone to logic-check my premise for me, and then the mechanisms involved, before I do anything else with it.

I have discovered that there is a strange fascination in the names of nuclear power plants and the towns the reactors are in. They're these names that sound like they're not anything at all, utterly innocuous names that you could maybe see on the toll ticket you get when you pull up at a human-staffed tollbooth on the Jersey Turnpike, and yet they're so huge. Sleeping giants, simply burbling along and doing their job while no one's looking (did you know more than half of New Jersey's energy is generated by two nuclear power generation stations? I didn't), or else... or else not doing their job while half the world watches in train-wreck fascination. They sound like codenames- Mayak, Sellafield, Windscale, Pripyat. I-

*eyes Pnakotus the iPod*

Okay, when the full playlist set to random hits that many Cthulhu carols in a row, it's time to stop talking about things that go boom. Sorry.

Anyway. I'm going to get some caffeine and then see if I can't catch up on a few other things. I-

Dammit, now it's playing "Life During Wartime"!

*rubs at face with both hands* Technology is not supposed to offer a running commentary on your life, is it?

Comments

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

Idaho Falls. Brown's Ferry. Davis-Besse. Three Mile Island. Calvert Cliffs. Hanford.

I've noticed the same thing. And the names of other things associated with the industry. Babcock & Wilcox; Connecticut Yankee. The names seem to be steeped in a sort of weird horror that isn't immediately horrific but you know it could be.

[camwyn]

Indian Point, Oyster Creek, Shoreham (once upon a time, anyway)...yeah.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

Dorset Pilgrim (fictional but also eerie).

[camwyn]

Hm. Don't think I know that one.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

See if you can track down a copy of The Dorset Disaster, by Alexander Sidar. It's fairly predictable, but it's What Would Happen if a major boiling-water reactor had the kind of power excursion accident they don't use as design-basis accidents on account of nobody would ever build reactors ever again. Things go boom, Connecticut is toast, the logistics of emergency evacuation of a civilian population are shown to be impossible.

[camwyn]

Gotcha. I'll have a nose-around as soon as I'm done with my current Milliways plot. When one is playing with Azathoth cultists, even if there is only one, it's probably best not to start reading nuclear disaster accounts too closely. It does things in the brain.

BTW- at some point could I run my Empty World premise/possibilities past you? Of all the people on my friendslist, you're the one I trust most to say 'this meets with a reasonable level of logical scrutiny' or 'you may want to consider three weeks at the seaside and a step-down caffeine detox programme if you honestly think this is supposed to make sense in any way whatsoever'.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

Ah, good old Azathoth. Yes, I should steer clear of the description of radiation burns if I were you.

Also, absolutely. I am honoured! I have spent quite a lot of time considering postapocalyptic scenarios.

[camwyn]

Back in college one of my aunts gave me a couple of fairly detailed UN or US Army (I forget which) reports on the effects of ionizing radiation on the human body in the wake of the two atomic bombs in Japan, so it's a little late for that. I appreciate the thought, though.

Great. I'll mail you when I get the chance, unless IM is preferable, in which case that'd have to happen after I get home from work.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have some of those same reports, but then I went actively looking for them. Because I am ghoulish.

Mail is the best way to reach me. It's lizbamford at gmail dot com.

[camwyn]

I spent far longer in the Teratology and Mutagenics section of the medical school library than anybody who wasn't actively pursuing a degree focused on high-risk obstetrics ought to have done, so I know how that can be.

Righto. I'll mail you sometime later today.

[jeditigger.livejournal.com]

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around!

Hope you keep feeling better.

[camwyn]

Much obliged. Phblah. I wonder if I can catch some Z's on the train to my parents' place.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

iPods is possessed. I thought you knew. When you hit 'random', the imps take over and go all editorial on you.

[camwyn]

Oh, I knew. My particular case of possessed iStuff is stronger than most, too, from what I understand, to the point where my "Heroes"-watching friends have occasionally wondered whether the ability to force an editorial or predictive commentary from a music source might not be my genefreak superpower. Some days it's just more distinct than others.

[spritelord.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that's a good sign you're an other. See your local Night or Day Watch office to be sure.

[gramarye1971]

I was always fond of Ginna, because (a) I grew up not very far from the immediate blast range, and (b) IIRC, it's pronounced 'Gin-nay' (with a 'g' like 'give'. It's totally one of those codenames where you have to pronounce it right or the guards with rifles get called in. ^_^

[camwyn]

Ooooh. Nice one.

[minkhollow]

Okay, it was just uranium processing and not an actual power plant, but... Fernald fits that scheme, to an extent.

[camwyn]

*looks it up in Wiki*

Oooh. Nice.

[minkhollow]

Yeah, the corn grown out in that area is usually really good. (And not all that radioactive, so far as we know. XD)
Dad tends to call Mountain Dew 'Fernald runoff' when he's feeling snarky about my caffeine preferences.