6 ms·
> Unknown to Bugorski, the accelerator was still running, and the warning lights that would have alerted Bugorski of the hazard had been switched off during a p
by wcerfgba 6y ago
> Unknown to Bugorski, the accelerator was still running, and the warning lights that would have alerted Bugorski of the hazard had been switched off during a previous experiment, and had not been turned back on.
I'd love to know why a safety mechanism like this had an off switch, and under what circumstances that off switch is to be used. I feel like safety mechanisms should be always on, since they exist to prevent us from making mistakes when we forget things?
- qubex 6y agoActually the light bulb that was supposed to be on to signal that the beam was on had burned out that very day.
- helge9210 6y agoBecause light bulbs were expensive and in deficit and people were cheap and plenty in USSR.
- hellbannedguy 6y agoIn 1978 two light bulbs wired in parallel could not be a lunch bill even in Russia.
- helge9210 6y agoYou don't understand, how planned economy works, do you? If you were given N lightbulbs at the beginning of the year and all of them went "pop" or were "taken home", you won't have more until next year, no matter what. And by "you" here I mean support person, responsible for putting spare lightbulbs into sockets. The scientist's performance assessment on the other hand is not tied to support supply chain troubles. He must continue with experiments and must use "hidden reserves" (disable safety system) if necessary.
- emptyfile 6y agoYeah, nuclear scientists grew on trees in the USSR. Love how authoritative americans are with their stereotypes.
- helge9210 6y agoI'm not an American. I was born in USSR and lived there until its long awaited collapse.
- brokenkebab 6y agoUnless you are taking these words absolutely literally, the OP is right. Economizing + achieving the marks set by CPSU at all cost was prioritized over everything, including safety even in armed forces. Source: born, and raised there.
- serf 6y agois there a name for the phenomenon of assuming someone on the internet is an American whenever they express a negative sentiment about anything? There should be.
- elliottkember 6y agoIt’s called projection
- trhway 6y ago>I'd love to know why a safety mechanism like this had an off switch, and under what circumstances that off switch is to be used. then you are in for a treat - just read how Chernobyl happened.
- oyashirochama 6y agoIt didn't have an off switch, it burned out moments before the man went in, literally so many unlucky events had to happen to have this event occur.
- golergka 6y agoThis approach to safety devices or safeguards is painfully typical in Russian culture. I live in Moscow, and about a half of taxi drivers don't buckle up their safety belts.
- Aeolun 6y agoDon't you know you go faster if you don't wear your safety belt? Especially when you hit something. Much, much faster.
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y agoI disagree. You go the same speed, just further away.
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y agoThis is a hobby interest of mine but switching alarm systems off to do a quick bit of work has caused at least three radiological accidents in irradiation facilities in Nesvizh, Belarus, in Soreq, Israel and in San Salvador, El Salvador. You can find the details in IAEA reports: The one in Nesvizh: https://www.iaea.org/publications/4712/the-radiological-accident-at-the-irradiation-facility-in-nesvizh https://www.iaea.org/publications/4712/the-radiological-acci... The one in San Salvador: https://www.iaea.org/publications/3718/the-radiological-accident-in-san-salvador https://www.iaea.org/publications/3718/the-radiological-acci... The one in Soreq: https://www.iaea.org/publications/3798/the-radiological-accident-in-soreq https://www.iaea.org/publications/3798/the-radiological-acci... In each case the facility operator entered the irradiation chamber after switching off safety mechanisms (such as alarms or mechanisms placing the radiation source in a safe position, inside a pit) in order to unblock the conveyor system from packages that had become lodged in the mechanism. These facilities usually have a conveyor system that takes packages of products like food or medicine around a radiocative source to be sterilised. The packages seem to have a tendency to get stuck in the conveyor mechanism's parts often at which point proper procedure is to power everything down before someone can enter the facility to service the mechanism. Obviously that causes severe delays to production and obviously people simply override this procedure, that is in place to protect them. They go into the facility, they find the source in an active position and become irradiated. My favourite of the bunch above is the one in Nesvizh, where the irradiation facility was built like a miniature maze from D&D, lacking only the guardian minotaurs with double axes (or Ogres, I guess). The radiation chamber was an actual maze, like a square spiral of concrete. The way to the source at the center of the maze was littered with pressure sensors that triggered alarms and there was even a moving hatch at the entrance that exposed a pit too deep and long to jump over. IAEA's investigation never found out how the operator managed to cross the pit, navigate the maze and get to the center of the chamber without triggering any alarms that would have normally stored the source to its safe position inside a dry pit, but he sure did it, then realised suddendly that the source was in the active position and ran back out. He died later of radiation poisoning before having the chance to tell anyone how he managed the feat.
- cerved 6y agothank you
- rscho 6y agoJust for giggles: anesthesia & icu alarms have off switches too. For cases where, for example the surgeon complains that he can't concentrate because of the noise. Additional fun fact: you've got an off switch but it's actually forbidden to use it ;-)