[Breaking] 47 Dead, 50 Missing On Nasurn

Nuclear Nightmare – 47 Dead, 50 Missing On Nasurn
By Ilon Jal, Nasurn Weekly

Alomn, Nasurn – The Aegohr colony announced today that Alomn, one of its nearby townships, has suffered what has been coined one of “the worst localized disasters” of the past decade. Early this morning, reports of a nuclear failure at the town's plant were publicized after an investigative team was issued to the area to follow up reports of communications from the area having gone dark. Once they arrived, the team immediately discovered that many of the residents were already dead in the streets.

Accusations of an inside job are already arising on the extranet, but in an exclusive interview with Nasurn Weekly, Chief Investigator Pol Jarez dismissed such claims. “It's absolutely ridiculous,” he stated. “We've got dozens of corpses piled up in the streets, and instead of helping, people are accusing us of having set this up.”

In the past twelve hours, specialized hazard response teams have been sent to Alomn to contain the reactor and locate possible survivors. 47 of the town's populace have been labeled deceased, with an additional 125 suffering from radiation sickness. Roughly 50 civilians from the town have been deemed missing thusfar, with the assumption being that some of that number might have fled into the nearby woodland to escape the fallout.

All residences within a 60 kilometer radius have been evacuated; locals are urged to steer clear of the area until the situation is resolved.

...oh, shit.

Jesus. How'd this happen? I thought they had, you know, safety mechanisms for this kind of thing. I thought nuclear power was more reliable than the post office these days.

... Uncle Spiz? This is a joke, like someone's just husking, right?

you're not picking up your omnitool

Oh shit is right.

How could this happen? This is terrifying!

What kind of fucking reactor were they using there? These sorts of disasters are supposed to be physically impossible with modern civilian reactor designs. I could understand if there was some sort of radiation poisoning, but it usually doesn't kill that quickly unless the levels are ludicrously high.

I'm surprised no one's yet leapt to the conclusion that it was sabotage. Usually we're three posts in before some subgenius begins spouting conspiracy theories. Look, here, I'll get you started; the vorcha did it. Discuss.

Oh my god, this is terrible. Those poor people.

Why would something like this be sabotage? I mean, what would be the reason for doing this?

Frogs.

Who knows why they do the fucking things they do.

And here we go.

May the souls of the dead find peace.

For what happened to the reactor, does anyone know if there was any repair work being done, perhaps for damages sustained during the war?

No idea, but Christ, horrific doesn't even begin to cover it.

Goddess, that is a tragedy.

Sch failures don't hapen often thse days but still, they are possible. Maybe it was some follow up from undetected damage during the war?
But colony grade reactorc can take a beating. We fought basically inside the reactors on Cyone and none went berserk. So I don't know what I really hope the reason for this is. It is just bad in any way.

Tragic news... I understand the annoyance of the chief investigator, but I understand why people are suspicious, such accidents just don't happen. There are dozens of failsafes, and mass effect fields generators just to contain the damage in case of critical failure.

Short story: They do.

A proper reactor cannot melt down catastrophically without major modification. I don't know what model was used here, so it's entirely possible they were experimenting with something new or cut costs with an older reactor type, but a Molten Salt reactor effectively cannot melt down without outside interference. In the case of a power failure or damage the system passively shuts down safely (Turning off the power doesn't cause containment to fail, power is necessary to keep the reactor from shutting itself down, due to how the salt plug works), and it more or less deals with its own radiation.

Educate yourself as to the wonders of modern fission.

Fusion reactors are a bit trickier, but most will simply stop functioning once power cuts or warning lights go off. Molten Salt fusion, of course, is as safe as molten salt fission.

Though what happened is almost certainly catastrophic damage sustained during the war or a simple lack of proper maintenance. Perhaps a sloppy or rushed repair job to bring power back up after the war ended.

Oh, Spiza, no. Don't tell me you had friends or family there? I'm so sorry.

Hide the fucking sabotage better. Shit, a nuclear reactor goes critical and delivers a lethal dose of radiation to fourty seven people before it hits the news?

And you're saying it was a malfunction?

Why not just stab everyone and claim it was mass suicide? It'd be less suspicious.

Am I allowed to say I'm sorry to hear that?

Holy Crap. I hear that Radiation sickness is a horrible way to go. If Spiza does have family there, my sincerest condolences.

Condolences for all affected and those that died.