Something Completely Different

       I have gotten a bit tired of the current formatting if my blog (even though there have only been two posts). So, now I shall do something completely different. I will tell you all a story.

       

       This story is about my dad. He used to work a Texas Instruments when he was first going into the workforce. His job was going around to places and getting rid of the radioactive stuff they find. He was a part of the nuclear squad thing at TI. Now, this was a time when TI thought the future would have everyone with nuclear generators in thier basements and in there cars, kind if like in Fallout. So, they had a lot of uranium and things like that to turn into the generators they were trying to make. The process was that a scientist would take some uranium and purify it or whatever, it's not important. What is, however, is that if the scientist didn't purify it correctly, then it was useless to the company and the scientist would have to pay for it our of their own pocket. Disposing of nuclear waste takes like hundreds of thousands of dollars by the way. The scientist could get fired and stuff too. So, that was the situation. My dad and his co-workers we're apart if the nuclear removal squad and therefore had these radiation detector gun things. And, like anyone else, they went around pointing it at everything for fun (wouldn't you?). They were going down the halls going pew pew at all the walls and stuff, and when they did, the radiation would normally read little to no radiation. You know, safe levels. However, there was one moment where it went, "0, 0, 0, 0, 3000000000, 0". So, the went over to the wall that had the massive amount if radiation and took out a few bricks. What they found was a bunch if uranium just in the wall, like 2 kilograms worth of the stuff. Apparently, one of the scientists down the hall messed up one of the purifications and to hide his mistake just put in the wall. He must have made a lot of mistakes because there were like multiple test worth of uranium in that wall. I guess if his master plan for hiding his big career mistake was to stick it in the wall, so I guess he wasn't that good of a scientist. But, there was uranium just in the wall where he worked! He says that he must have passed by that wall like a hundred times while he was there before he noticed. 

       So this was all funny and weird, but some of the really funny stuff is what happened afterwards. My dad in his co-workers now had b bunch if this random uranium that they had the get rid of. Now, the amount of uranium they had nowadays would be enough to fuel a small nuclear bomb. The government would be all over them trying to get it away from terrorist. It was that much. So, my dad and his co-workers put it into a jar and used it as a doorstop at thier office. What can I say! Back then it took like ten kilograms of uranium to make a nuclear bomb and they had like two, so they weren't really concerned. But, they still had a bunch of this still very radioactive uranium. It turns out that the radiation being emitted could be blocked by like a piece of glass, so they put it in a jar in the corner. They used it as a door holder a couple of times. 

       While that was all good and stuff, they still wanted to get rid of it someday, so they looked up what it would take to get rid of it. It turns out that reserving a place in the toxic waste dump would take 200,000$ and transporting it would take 100,000$ and the list goes on. It willing have taken millions of dollars to get rid of the stuff. Disposing of nuclear waste is usually done bull the government, so they went and called the government and asked if they would get rid if it for them. The government's response basically said that it was thier problem so they had to get rid of it. That was a problem. So, one of my dad's superiors got an idea. They sent a return email to the government asking what it would take to put a bunch of uranium on the black market. The very next dad an armored car with a bunch of guys with machine guns came by and took the uranium away. Nowadays my dad's friend would probably have been arrested and thier workplace searched, but the 80s were a different time. They got away with it.

       My dad has a ton of stories like that that he tells me, so every once in a while I can come by here and tell another one.

Just remember, stay sticky my friends.