You seem to assume that the choices are mutually exclusive: Soviet KGB-style interrogations and intelligence, or total Anarchy.
I ask you, why did we even fight the Cold War, and win it, if we were just going to embrace everything at a later time?
Well...from a realpolitik viewpoint...you do. Countries are only interested in protecting their own (f*ck the world...and their allies), and even then, only so much as is necessary to stay in power.
Allow me to explain this to you in more pragmatic terms: if your country could, with reasonable effort, turn everyone outside its borders into slaves, sell them and their children on the open market, as well as anyone inside its own borders (up to 50% + 1 to keep itself in power 'democratically), it totally would. Buying and selling people's information, 'social' justice without any sort of reason...these are simply preludes to what is already here.
"Due to National Security concerns, we can only tell you that the person charged is guilty...we cannot provide any evidence, and you will need to totally believe us, no matter how many times we have been found engaging in practices that are considered immoral."
Nonsense. Terrorism, as apparently defined by many an agency, is anything, ordinary or non-ordinary, that causes at least one person to get their knickers in a twist, i.e. the current and past three generations have now attained the ill-fated title of being composed of entirely 'girly men.'
Snickers bar someone dropped in the elevator of your corporate building? Better call a bomb squad, wouldn't want to expose yourselves to the risk that a candy bar might be filled with something other than chocolate, peanuts, and possibly some forth of caramel. Someone speaking in a foreign language nearby, looking very animated and 'angry'? Well, obviously the FBI needs to intercede on Al-Him's third daughter's wedding planning, and how they will not have the flowers she wants in time. The Amish have a bumper crop of corn this year? Well, they're obviously up to no good.
The X-Ray dose is trivial...especially the digital versions, which use, I believe, six times less radiation than a normal non-digital version.
http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/dental.htm
2 or 3 mrem is the reported dose for a dentist X-Ray.
http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/around-us/doses-daily-lives.html
On average, Americans receive a radiation dose of about 0.62 rem (620 millirem) each year.
Someone who has journalism (possibly even 'Tech' journalism) experience is trying to run
Let's review earlier
Compare that one to the current post, and note the differences. First,
The current submission is, perhaps, something similar to pulling a story off the AP wire, and dumping the first paragraph verbatim as the summary.
The Tech industry is filled with people, both major and minor, who have email addresses.
"Enough lead to act as a shield would not have the needed thermal profile."
My solution would need to be adapted accordingly. The goal with the lead pods was not, in of themselves, to provide a permanent means of storage, but to allow the robot, while working within the reactor, to safely contain pieces of the fuel rods...because cutting fuel rods, with a laser, into thousands of pieces, then attempting to pick up those pieces later on would, in all likelihood, end badly...as the cut fuel rods / pieces, presumably laying on top of each other at they are cut off, would have a much higher surface area, which, if there are any neutron reflecting / slowing materials in the area (like water), might end badly. You could use any number of materials that qualify as radiation stopping here...and there are many to choose from. Lead is simply a well-known, common one.
As for storing fuel rods, in a pool, the water itself is fine: http://what-if.xkcd.com/29/. Granted these are 'spent' fuel rods, not active fuel rods in a reactor...they're just being stored, so they're safe enough for people, engineers, in some instances, to walk around unshielded in some cases...well, unshielded at the bottom of a pool.
Perhaps a better solution, long term, would be simply to recycle the rods. I know, I know, it sounds insane. But your options are seal them up...and watch as someone goes looking for them eventually...and they will...or use them up...I know of no immediate way to render radioactive substances non-radioactive using current technology. Current methods induce more radiation into surroundings, etc. Perhaps if a new method for slicing or restoring subatomic particles could be created, this would not be an issue...
The cutting is occurring under water; I'm sure that the Japanese, depending on their level of desperation, can build a test scenario to replicate the conditions in the reactor, and make adjustments before sending anything in.
Again, the core itself is under water...you might need to move some debris to get around things, at which point multiple robots, or perhaps, multiple robots with winches / more powerful / disposable tools might be useful. If it requires two of them to remove a girder to get to the sunken core, then two of them they will need. I favor the laser because it's bound to be useful for cutting the melted rods into chunks you can safely remove...mechanical attempts would be iffy, at best. And it might be possible to keep the actual laser generation apparatus outside the reactor, while feeding the cutting beam through the fiber optic cables. This would allow complete control of the laser + shutdown of the laser in an emergency + keep it out of any danger / radiation. Plus chemical lasers tend to be stronger than other kinds...or that was the impression I was left with last time I checked...things may have changed.
And yes, you are right about using the laser itself on the cores. Some double-checking would be needed to ensure that it would not 'assist' any additional neutron release, but I'm sure the idea itself is still a sound one.
As the core is dissected, I'd direct the robots to place each piece in a lead-lined storage pod; this needs to be done as each piece is cut off, so as to not create further metldowns; each piece must be placed in its own self-contained pod. After this is done, the immediate worry about needing to constantly pump in coolant to keep the core from getting worse will be alleviated...and the core itself will be contained, and presumably taken somewhere to be recycled or stored or buried. Continuing to pump water into the reactor, when it already contains seawater (WTF), which is a serious no-no for typical nuclear chemistry, is just a recipe for disaster. Your choices are many, but the ones here are 1.) keep pumping in water and watch it keep poisoning things (which does seem to be the media's current assessment...no idea whether that is true), or 2.) dismantle the core so that radiation will drop. There is, of course, as you highlighted, the possibly of dust creation...but lasers tend to be pretty good here; your choices are 200 years of highly radioactive water flowing out of the reactor (need to verify this, is it actually highly radioactive and flowing? and 200 years worth?) or what will probably be a temporary spike of whatever dust is created by the lasers used (better than other cutting tools, I imagine), followed by an immediate drop off as the core is sealed. And the dust created will be somewhat granular, so perhaps some careful planning there can limit its spread as well (I suppose if you want to get extra crazy, you would apply an airlock or something to the area directly above wherever you find the melted core...and just filter for particles larger than 0.3 microns or something and smaller than the robot. You could apply gel to the cut pieces of the cores itself, to prevent any dust from moving, thought that would happen afterwards.
Well, going with theoretical solutions (for 200 Alex), I'd whip up a pneumatic robot (all fluidic pressure, no electronics), and strap on a chemical laser + fiber optic lines + lens system. That should ensure that stray radiation will not damage any electronics, as it won't have any, though it will be a one way trip for the bot (still going to be highly radioactive), and watching the cables will be an issue (better pay the extra money to make sure they're braided). Then I'd send it into the reactor core, to cut up / out the still active reactor rods, and bring them to a designated midway point piece by piece.
No human is going to survive in that core, even if they'd volunteer for the mission...nor would any electronic-based machine. The first will be cooked from the inside out, the second will get so many errors as it gets closer to the core from radiation hitting its processors that it will do more damage than good.
I'm not interested in a protracted 'battle' with the NSA...1.) it's not how I do things, and 2.) it takes time and energy away from core focuses.
If I wanted to register a complaint with the NSA, I'd do it by ensuring that anyone associated with it would suddenly consider the thought of continued work along those lines to be less than compatible with their long term goals in this life, namely peace and longevity. However, we live in a Democracy...and as such, we shall wait for the current set of leaders to fail...and they will....to reign in the NSA, before endeavoring to consider alternatives.
For the record, the NSA does constitute a sometimes valuable resource to the US; however, like the CIA, some of its, shall I say 'shenanigans' need to be reigned in, before we become the laughingstock of the nations, and we can't call ourselves the nation of the free / home of the brave without laughing. Finally, the military does need to be brought home; the military leaders have spoken...all of them...and while some people might want to test their loyalty to civilian authority by pushing for further war with Syria, I am reminded that the reason we have military leaders is that so we can have their advice on military matters. Ergo, if they are saying "let's give the military a rest,' then there's a chance that it needs one, on more than one level.
Yeah, no. Assume that the NSA has access to your machine, even if you're running a tight BSD install. So...why develop new software that they're just going to copy for themselves? Remember, these people have no souls.
And? He was not the one lying to get the job. Full stop.
Switch providers, tell friends about new provider, watch as old provider's revenues slowly crash over the next three years, while new one enjoys a nice bump.
Is....is super lie...
There are many issues that IT attempts to communicate to Senior Management, but, for a variety of reasons, go unhandled. We've tried communicating before...and people said "Shutup, you're talking too technical, you need to speak business," then it became "Shutup, every week there is some sort of thing that needs attending to..."; so, after a while, those reports start getting filed in the garbage can immediately after they are printed, since that's where they end up anyways.
It's only later on, when something has gone terribly wrong (imagine a large kingdom having been run into ruin by the last dozen or so kings...), when there are so many things going wrong all at once that duct tape and shoelaces can't fix things, that Senior Management may wake from its slumber, and ask "What the hell is going on in this company? Why is it taking forever to get new projects done, and old projects are requiring constant intervention just to keep afloat? Why are we leasing buildings that we used to own? How badly mismanaged have things been that the former masters of the household are now its servants?" And that's when Senior Management begins knocking on Accounting, Legal, and IT's doors...if they are still around...and asking, "You are the sensory organs of this company...you deal with the day to day running of operations...why are we bankrupt? Did we lose a major lawsuit? What happened? Accounting, why are we in the red? IT, you handle information on a daily basis...what have you heard?" And for companies that have outsourced all of their IT, Accounting, and Legal operations...well, just getting a hold of someone, who is very unhappy with your delinquent bills, can be trying.
So, what you're seeing now is Senior Management having woken up from a long hiatus, and wondering who made what decisions, and why everything is so wrong.
Those who live in glass houses, should not throw stones...
"The fundamental principle of science, the definition almost, is this: the sole test of the validity of any idea is experiment." -- Richard P. Feynman
