nuclear attack

[Apollo]

Nice, hope you didn't get blackmailed cos the seller knew you were keen

I built myself a counter a few years after Chernobyl, just out of nosiness. I'm pleased to report I never found a hot spot on the ground.

An interesting HG aside: I watched a chappie from NRPB spend a long time wandering around the ticket area of the wee cinema in the Musuem of Transport. As I was standing there too, a certain amount of concern began, but as I could see his counter was only showing normal background activity, I wasn't too worried, so settled down to see what he was up to.

He was quite skilled and stood in the centre of the area and slowly observed the count in various directions, eventually settling on one wall. After a little more observation, he started to close in on one area and then started to sweep the detector over a painting hanging on the wall (the one that backs onto the mock street) and over a further period of time was able to settle on particular area of the painting, which were duly noted in a little black book, after which he departed.

Makes you think, they used to grind up all sorts of horrible stuff in the bad old days, just to make a nice colour, then wondered why their hair fell out.

[Apollo]

Born after September 26, 1983? You may have this chap to thank that you were, and maybe the rest of us just for still being here.

Read the details of the man who didn't push the button back then when, technically, he probably should.

Russia's automated defence satellites signalled a Minuteman attack, however Stanislav Petrov decided the system was in error and reported this to his superiors, averting a counterstrike. Though he was right, he still got a reprimand for not following protocol (which he had prepared).

http://www.brightstarsound.com/

(Reposted to point at dedicated site to Petrov)

[Apollo]

Just an update to the previous post, as I've found that Petrov was awarded a 'World Citizen Award" in 2004, and the details of the incident have now been centralised on one site:

http://www.brightstarsound.com/

Still, not much considering what he did. The Cuban Missile Crisis is often quoted as being the time the world came nearest to nuclear obliteration, 15 minutes is the typical figure given, but Petrov was much closer, and had he not had the foresight (and knowledge, he wrote the system protocols) to think before carrying out his duty as Commander, there's little question we were only a button press away from disaster in 1983. His task was to decide if the alarm was false or not. Had he decided the attack signal was genuine, and pressed the button, everything would have been over, as the system was designed so that no intervention was possible. The incident remained a secret until 1993.

It effectively ended his career, since his superiors were found to be at fault, and the Soviet system just didn't allow a subordinate to be smarter than his superiors. He left to care for his ailing wife, eventually having to borrow money to bury her properly after she died from a brain tumour.

[Alchemist]

Apollo. Very interesting articles, always wanted to know what your
line of work is. Well yesterday did my tour of Faslane and Coulport,
minus the camera of course. Just went to a pub nearby for a few
jars and enjoy the weather in the beer garden

Suppose you work in a job in which it's on a "need to know" basis

[Apollo]

Lucky you

Managed to get a legitimate business visit and tour of Faslane (complete with Minox, but no opportunities), but it didn't stretch to Coulport (don't even slow down if I go round the corner at the gate there now).

Friend stopped to enjoy the view over Faslane a few weeks ago, and Military Police arrived in minutes and moved him on. He didn't argue, but thought it odd as the TV news regularly film the place from the road.

[paladin]

Where will you hide if an ICBM with a nuclear warhead is due to strike on Glasgow in less than 20 minutes? (after a warning from the government)
Will you go to....
1. Buchanan nuclear bunker (according to some sources)....
2. Drive up, heading toward the high land.....(you may hit a traffic jam)
3. Drive west
4. Hide in a tunnel (it may not be deep enough......and it is certainly not radiation prove......)
Or Do you have a better location?

above posted on Friday 13th.....arouses my superstisious suspicions but after thinking about what I would do after a warning from the Government?.........I would probably carry on doing the things that I do every day, 'cos the Government usually get it wrong anyhow.
Now if it was a warning from someone whom I respected with a track record of sound judgement? ........I don't know what I would do as all form of reason would evade me but I would hope to at least communicate to those dear to me that I love them.

[Alchemist]

Where will you hide if an ICBM with a nuclear warhead is due to strike on Glasgow in less than 20 minutes? (after a warning from the government)
Will you go to....
1. Buchanan nuclear bunker (according to some sources)....
2. Drive up, heading toward the high land.....(you may hit a traffic jam)
3. Drive west
4. Hide in a tunnel (it may not be deep enough......and it is certainly not radiation prove......)
Or Do you have a better location?

Errrmm last image of myself, with bacardi spice in hand, before
the blast

[JayKay]

Possibly apocryphal, but one story I heard was that the staff on board on duty UK nuclear subs had certain tests to check that the UK had not been destroyed or badly damaged in a war.

Obviously it was difficult for them to be in radio communication with the UK as this could give away their position and leave them open to attack before they could launch. So they had to check the situation in the UK and act accordingly - ie if the UK had been reduced to burnt toast, launch.

One of these tests was whether or not the Today show was broadcast. Today due to industrial action at the BBC it was not on.

maybe better have the shelter ready...just in case.

[Alycidon]

I used to work at the Continental Tyre Factory at Newbridge, right on the flight path into Turnhouse Airport. Every day there was a pair of Tornado fighter bombers thundering over the factory at low level.

I was told that these fighters were part of a patrol around all UK passenger airports that dropped an electronic signal to the control tower as they passed, if the control tower failed to respond with the correct coded reply the fighters were to assume that the tower had been taken over by Soviet commandos and they had standing orders to make a second pass and take out the control tower.

Sounds far fetched, but then again....

[crazygray23]

ill be heading to the high court in glasgow if it happened seeing as the building is blast proof inside and out and the cells are way below street level ill take my chances there :)

[Vinny the Mackem]

ill be heading to the high court in glasgow if it happened seeing as the building is blast proof inside and out and the cells are way below street level ill take my chances there

I'm not sure they're that far below street level, only one flight down, but certainly very secure. Whether they designed them to be nuclear attack proof is beyond me though!!

[Snapshot]

Hi folks,

There was a rumour our schools library (Largs Academy) was designed to withstand some sort of nuclear attack...

It was all rather odd, as the library, toilets and a lecture theatre were all in one rather solid single-story structure, which linked the 2 larger school buildings. I can remember when they did some expansion work (around 1994) that one side wall of the library was about 1m thick! Also, there was only very small windows at the top of the walls (the windows were no taller than 1/2m, and were perhaps 10m in the air).

It certainly couldn't withstand even a close/direct attack, however it just seems all too much "over engineered". Major nearby targets are Faslane, Holy Loch (at the time!) and Hunterston.....

Any ideas?

[Apollo]

Snapshot, have a look earlier in the thread, where I posted a number of sites that were targetted, and the reasons. As with the Iraq WOMD "intelligence", some of them are a bit "imaginative", but no surprise given the atmosphere at the time.

When was Largs Academy built, that would give a clue?

There are lots of stories about supposed shelters etc. that don't stand scrutiny, but anything with government money as its source has to be a favourite for someone organising themselves a little bolthole.

Mavbe they just got a job lot of concrete off the back of a (council) lorrythe day they poured those walls

[crazygray23]

ill be heading to the high court in glasgow if it happened seeing as the building is blast proof inside and out and the cells are way below street level ill take my chances there

I'm not sure they're that far below street level, only one flight down, but certainly very secure. Whether they designed them to be nuclear attack proof is beyond me though!!

the cells at the saltmarket building are one flight down but the new part the cells are 2 flights down i know ive worked there , and the new building was built to withstand a terrorist attack namely an explosion inside or out ,maybe saying it was nuclear proof was far fetched but being 2 floors into the basement is a lot better than being on street level during the blast

[ladylabobo]

I think I'd rather be caught up in the first blast and die more or less instantly rather than trying to survive the blast then end up with radiation sickness with a long drawn out death.

I do remember in primary school seeing a film about the three (or was it four?) minute warning and how we were all meant to get under our desks. Yeah like that would help.