Tunnel boring machines
July 21, 2008 11:08 AM   Subscribe

 
I AM BENEATH YOU, BUT NOTHING IS BENEATH ME!
posted by Scoo at 11:12 AM on July 21, 2008


Anyone know if it's safe, from a radiation standpoint, to visit these sites? Weren't nuclear weapons supposed to leave their targets uninhabitable for thousands of years?
posted by jsonic at 11:19 AM on July 21, 2008


I don't think they're boring at all!
posted by Mister_A at 11:27 AM on July 21, 2008


Boring post.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:27 AM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


Bastard.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:28 AM on July 21, 2008


Gratuitous C.H.U.D. reference.
posted by infinitywaltz at 11:34 AM on July 21, 2008


PLOWSHARE -- Nuclear Explosions working for your future
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 11:37 AM on July 21, 2008


Pretty cool site.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:38 AM on July 21, 2008


they should do that in london more often. wi need ur tunnlz.
posted by krautland at 11:44 AM on July 21, 2008


tunnel interesting
posted by DU at 12:08 PM on July 21, 2008


jsonic, access to the Nevada test site is controlled the same way as access to reactors and accelerators. If you want to go, you have to have a reason (beyond "that'd be nifty"), get some credential and a dosimeter, don't walk past the DANGER RADIATION AREA ropes, and six months later get a report that says you weren't exposed to anything. I don't remember offhand whether access to the Nevada test site still requires a security clearance. I know the Trinity site, at White Sands in southern New Mexico, is open to tourists one day a year or suchlike.

A lot of the data collected during nuclear tests comes from electronics that, of course, get destroyed in the blast. These data have to be transmitted to the surface in real time, and one limiting factor in how much you can learn is whether your signal or your blast moves faster along the cable. My friends at Los Alamos tell me that before weapons testing ended they had a steady supply of very long coaxial cables with one connector gone.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 12:22 PM on July 21, 2008


interesting site, but it totally looks like a case of the pepsi blues. wolfdog should know better.
posted by taumeson at 12:25 PM on July 21, 2008


Bugs Bunny: boring. (Shoulda turned left at Albuquerque.)
posted by not_on_display at 12:36 PM on July 21, 2008


it totally looks like a case of the pepsi blues.

Indeed; nothing like trying to pimp boring devices on MeFi.
posted by jmd82 at 12:49 PM on July 21, 2008


Subterranean Cold War military sites from around the world from one of my old posts in '06.
posted by longbaugh at 12:50 PM on July 21, 2008


Boring Organisms
posted by Sam.Burdick at 1:12 PM on July 21, 2008


I bored your mom last night.
posted by gauchodaspampas at 2:37 PM on July 21, 2008


So did Dad.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:59 PM on July 21, 2008


When I first read "Tunnel boring machines" I thought this was about ssh and library computers.
posted by shmegegge at 3:06 PM on July 21, 2008


I'd love to have one of those tunnel boring devices sitting in my driveway. Not even the giants pictured here, I'd be more than happy with one that was merely eight feet across. Periodically, I'd move it from view in an effort to convince my neighbors that I was tunneling under all their properties for some nefarious purpose.

You know... just to keep them sufficiently paranoid.

Plus, think of how much storage space you'd have if you had a tunnel that went down fifty feet and then a mile in either direction.
posted by quin at 3:08 PM on July 21, 2008


Less boring tunnel tales.

“John said he saw a tall white creature over seven feet tall in one of the underground tunnels in Mexico,” said Dr. Deagle, who remains open-minded about Fialla’s claims, but is continuing to seek further verification, adding that several of the underground structures have been scientifically proven to be excavated more than 300,000 years ago.

Phil Schneider - November 1995 Lecture Underground Bases Black OPS !

And just in case you think Dr. Deagle isn't wack...Even Alex Jones thinks Dr. Deagle peddles snake oil (Dr. Deagle talks about the tunnels in some of his MP3's. Feel free to try and figure out which ones - I'm not about to sift through the morass and point ya'll to the correct ones. Hint however: The heat at the depths he mentions is enough to kill humans, so no real need to consider him correct.)
posted by rough ashlar at 4:28 PM on July 21, 2008


That neutrino detecting room is awesome to the power of awesome. Still, all I could think of was the first chapter in Ellison's Invisible Man where he describes his secret basement room covered in brilliant light bulbs.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:34 PM on July 21, 2008


Why didn't they include Taylor detonating the Alpha Omega?
posted by Tube at 4:54 PM on July 21, 2008


What happens if a tunnel and an anti-tunnel collide?
posted by ...possums at 5:01 PM on July 21, 2008


I'm in the mood for a gimlet.
posted by Curry at 12:45 AM on July 22, 2008


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