Comments on: You Light Up My Life (In More Ways Than One)

You Light Up My Life (In More Ways Than One)

Xurando — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:03:57 -0800

A visit to Russian abandoned nuclear lighthouses.. Despite the hazards, there has been much vandalism of these sites. The IAEA has taken on the task of decommissioning these radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG's).

By: pseudonick

pseudonick — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:18:24 -0800

The official euphemism for these sources is "orphan sources"

By: punkfloyd

punkfloyd — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:44:17 -0800

Damn Interesting^TM

By: pwally

pwally — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:47:34 -0800

At first glance IAEA looked like IKEA and I got to thinking: what possible benefit could IKEA get from decommissioning nuclear lighthouses? And then the answer came to me... I should buy glasses and get tested for ADD.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:48:07 -0800

Further evidence that scrap metal scavengers and especially the "no ask, no tell" dealers who buy from them are among the lowest life forms on earth.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:53:42 -0800

Too cheap to meter!

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:54:39 -0800

Was ther anything in the old Soviet Union that wasn't nuclear powered? Nuclear powered toothbrush- triumph of Soviet technology. Radiation provides power and liquidates bad breath odor. Teeth will glow.

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:01:25 -0800

Eponysterical!

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:21:23 -0800

I used to live next to the first and only nuclear light house in the USA. 1-mile out off the end of my dock. Of course, it was no longer nuclear by then, for about 2-years in the 1950s. Now in private hands, solar powered.

By: adipocere

adipocere — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:29:50 -0800

I want to vandalize an nuclear lighthouse and get chemotherapy I want to vandalize an nuclear lighthouse and my bones will glow green I'll steal fuel rods by the light of day Because scrap metal dealers pay by weight I want to vandalize an nuclear lighthouse, won't that be okay?

By: dead cousin ted

dead cousin ted — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:41:15 -0800

Ah, English Russia, god bless you for your stolen content and poor translations.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:59:45 -0800

nice post...thanks...

By: buzzman

buzzman — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:57:20 -0800

Ah Russian Ukranian dating site link, I like your choices; faces like squat smiling mushrooms, beckoning me to your own special radioactive glow of a thousand half-lives...

By: ArgentCorvid

ArgentCorvid — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:14:47 -0800

dead cousin ted: Ah, English Russia, god bless you for your stolen content and poor translations. There was a time that I felt that way about ER, too. But then I was grateful that I was able to see some stuff from a world I would not normally be able to see. Also, Poor Translation > No Translation.

By: buzzman

buzzman — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:29:30 -0800

Radioactive. Lighthouse in my pants. It glows. A shining beacon.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:26:20 -0800

what possible benefit could IKEA get from decommissioning nuclear lighthouses? And then the answer came to me... I should buy glasses and get tested for ADD. I recommend the Ivrig, though Godis is also nice.

By: mrbill

mrbill — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:13:45 -0800

Wikipedia has an awesome article on RTGs.

By: atrazine

atrazine — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:25:32 -0800

Further evidence that scrap metal scavengers and especially the "no ask, no tell" dealers who buy from them are among the lowest life forms on earth. No doubt. All scrap metal smelters have sensitive geiger counters because if radioactive material gets in there it is a fucking nightmare. The whole batch of melt is contaminated (and god knows where that will end up - your forks?) plus the smelter is contaminated and any future batches will be slightly contaminated by it also. I'm too lazy to google, but there was a case of this happening in India recently.

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:37:17 -0800

Thanks for this fascinating tale, Xurando. All summer/fall I lead a boat tour of lighthouses in Down East Maine (each fascinating in its own way, despite not being nuclear). Thanks also to stbalbach for giving me a nice trivia question/answer to add to the tour this summer.

By: yeloson

yeloson — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:59:54 -0800

Well, that's certainly a better use of nuclear power than Project Pluto, which thankfully we decided was a bad idea after folks realized it would spew fallout all along the way of it's trip. (not that, you know, unshielded nuclear reactor -anything- isn't a bad idea to begin with...)

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:27:08 -0800

On first glance, I couldn't grasp the idea of someone building nuclear-powered lighthouses, so I thought this was a euphemism for far-flung radiation monitoring "lighthouses". Man. Clearly I grew up in the wrong part of the nuclear age, getting all of the fear and none of the excitement.

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:33:24 -0800

Futzing around with an abandoned Russian nuclear anything seems... unwise.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:49:32 -0800

lelilo: "Thanks also to stbalbach for giving me a nice trivia question/answer to add to the tour this summer." One can see the lighthouse when crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Look north and see two lighthouses on the western side of the bay. The one furthest away, about 4 to 5 miles from the bridge, is the ex-nuclear.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:25:27 -0800

Russian Radioactive Lighthouse is one of those wonderful things that sounds like it should be a nonsense phrase but isn't.

By: jouke

jouke — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:25:09 -0800

From that interesting article linked by mrbill I followed this link on RTGs from an environmental organisation called Bellona. Also to be recommended.

By: yoHighness

yoHighness — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:07:02 -0800

So that's the thing Dr Fred had in the bottom of the pool at house. I found jouke's link a morbidly interesting read... Appalled to learn lots of RTG's just lie around, up for grabs; some are dismantled down to the strontium; several looters died from radiation poisoning; one RTG heated up to 800 degrees inside after being run over by a jeep; and a couple fell into the sea during transport or due to having been installed near the cliff. It goes on.