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Admiral Rickover was known for walking into the engineering spaces of nuclear ships and just throwing a valve handle that would force a reactor scram. Not infre

Admiral Rickover was known for walking into the engineering spaces of nuclear ships and just throwing a valve handle that would force a reactor scram. Not infrequently on a submerged submarine. Just to make sure the team was on their toes.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
I'm not a sailor or a nuclear engineer, but that doesn't sound like a great idea. Should the Chaos Monkey approach really be used on nuclear systems? Aside: was it even legal for him to do that?
- killjoywashere 6y ago
  If you are responsible for building the industry that designs and builds nuclear submarines that carry nuclear missiles, you had better make sure that those submarines and their crews can handle chaos monkeys. Also, Rickover was Congress's favorite admiral. They forced the Navy to promote him. I'm pretty sure they made sure that the laws were to his liking.
  - GoodJokes 6y ago
    Lol, as software developers it should be obvious that you can test stuff like this without endangering, uh, the world. This general sounds like a pompous tool. Like most millitary higher ups.
- nexuist 6y ago
  In general, one would hope that a nuclear system is designed such that the problem can easily be corrected if a single button or lever is accidentally pressed. It would be quite a terrible system if you could e.g. trigger a meltdown with just one action.
- bovermyer 6y ago
  A reactor scram is basically just an emergency shutdown. If I were a nuclear engineer, it might give me a heart attack to hear the scram alarms, but I would be plenty happy knowing the scram works.
- dekhn 6y ago
  Rickover was the sort of person who had the technical expertise, gumption, and charisma to get away with this. It's worth reading up on this amazing individual, who made navy's nuclear reactors so safe, and led the creation of nuclear reactor expertise within the navy. Also, if you're not confident enough in your nuclear reactor to apply chaos monkey techniques, you shouldn't be engineering nuclear reactors.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

I'm not a sailor or a nuclear engineer, but that doesn't sound like a great idea. Should the Chaos Monkey approach really be used on nuclear systems? Aside: was it even legal for him to do that?

killjoywashere 6y ago
If you are responsible for building the industry that designs and builds nuclear submarines that carry nuclear missiles, you had better make sure that those submarines and their crews can handle chaos monkeys. Also, Rickover was Congress's favorite admiral. They forced the Navy to promote him. I'm pretty sure they made sure that the laws were to his liking.
- GoodJokes 6y ago
  Lol, as software developers it should be obvious that you can test stuff like this without endangering, uh, the world. This general sounds like a pompous tool. Like most millitary higher ups.
nexuist 6y ago
In general, one would hope that a nuclear system is designed such that the problem can easily be corrected if a single button or lever is accidentally pressed. It would be quite a terrible system if you could e.g. trigger a meltdown with just one action.
bovermyer 6y ago
A reactor scram is basically just an emergency shutdown. If I were a nuclear engineer, it might give me a heart attack to hear the scram alarms, but I would be plenty happy knowing the scram works.
dekhn 6y ago
Rickover was the sort of person who had the technical expertise, gumption, and charisma to get away with this. It's worth reading up on this amazing individual, who made navy's nuclear reactors so safe, and led the creation of nuclear reactor expertise within the navy. Also, if you're not confident enough in your nuclear reactor to apply chaos monkey techniques, you shouldn't be engineering nuclear reactors.