This sounds nice.

So give me a sec to tie this all together, but this thread started with my son giving me a computer game about a really bad nuclear accident. Yeah, I know, sounds fun doesn't. Great kid. Anyway it got me going on the history of nuclear accidents, the real kind. Holy shit, we've had a few stinkers that nearly cost us.

As an aside, I was temporarily diverted by minor British political scandals (they are so close to nuclear disasters, it's entirely understandable.) I must recount the 1993 controversy by John Selwyn Gummer (I am not making this up) whilst he was Secretary of State for the Environment. He apparently refused to discuss acid rain causing pollution that was drifting over Norway with his Norwegian counterpart. The lusty Norwegian summoned his best diplomatic rhetoric and called Mr. Gummer a drittsekk, what we commoners call a shitbag. Nice.

Anyway, back to happier times. Just to get started I looked up how many nuclear disasters there have been and I was shocked to find there were so many they are divided into categories. Jesus. For example there are the ones that happen in the lab and kill scientists and unwary onlookers. Then there are the ones when they are building a reactor and they are (presumably) trying it out, and it goes wacko. Then there are the operational kind, like 3 Mile Island or Chernobyl.

But the one I'm gonna spend a few minutes on tonight is airplanes dropping the damn things by accident. This isn't gonna make anyone feel good, but have there been a few of those. Whoa. During the time period from about 1950 to 1980 there have been over 20 such accidents. Many involved B-52's. Engine fires, mid air collisions (!!!) and accidents while taxiing around on the ground. Some have never been found. Any weird green glow down by the tomatoes?