t.k.kontos

Comment Threads

• fatal.error commented on If this had happened 30 years ago today, we would all have died
  That's not how it works. You don't necessarily have to be very close to a bomb going off to detect it. As an example the Swedish monitoring stations picked up the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine, and that wasn't even a full on nuclear explosion Especially with regards to an atmospheric nuclear explosion I would guess a fair number of those Radnet stations would register it, and the ones that are configured to detect gamma would register it immediately. In general, governments and military's take an interest in this kind of thing and given that the infrastructure to detect radiation...
• zhochaka commented on If this had happened 30 years ago today, we would all have died
  Big explosions happen often enough, though usually the cause is apparent. You don't have to wonder about the nuclear option when a chemical factory or a fuel depot blows up. (My mother was a couple of miles from the Flixborough explosion, supervising a Sunday School day out.)...
• gravelbelly22 commented on If this had happened 30 years ago today, we would all have died
  At the time of Chernobyl, my father was one of the full-time staff of the Royal Observer Corps; they were a volunteer organisation whose remit changed during the Cold War from "phone in assessments of bomber raids" to "spot the instant sunshine". Their instruments measured no detectable increase in radiation from the accident, because the levels were so small compared to what they were designed to detect, i.e. near-lethal and lethal dose rates. As for nuclear deterrence, the submarine leg of any triad is critical; it means that you can afford not to be on a hair-trigger. The V-bombers had...
• Charlie Stross commented on If this had happened 30 years ago today, we would all have died
  This is one of the reasons that the cancellation of Nimrod MRA.4 caused a sucking in of teeth Yeah, that too. Cancelling the MRA.4 with no replacement on the horizon was just plain dumb for a whole variety of other reasons, too. (First time the UK's been without a dedicated airborn maritime patrol capability since before WW2. What were they thinking?) ((Yes, I know the MRA.4 was wildly over budget and facing huge problems due to the airframe frankly not being fit for purpose or conforming to modern standards of, er, standardization: but the USAF has an equivalent platform; alternatively...
• Greg. Tingey commented on If this had happened 30 years ago today, we would all have died
  Yes Camoron is one of a line of (now) at least 5 Prime Ministers [ Cameron, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher ] who should be taken out, put up against a wall & shot for treason. As always, the madwoman started this insanity, by instituting naval cuts that got us the Flaklands War, & every single PM since then has followed this insane lead ..... It is to be hoped that we can re-arm enough with destroyer/cruisers + frigates, all carrying drone swarms, before the shit hits the fan, sometime in the next 15-30 years....