Re: [HoE] Nuclear Reactors

[Seyton <n9543488@cc.wwu.edu>]

> How prevalent are still-functional reactors, and/or whatever it is you need 
> to find a control rod necessary to make a Glowstick in the HoE setting?

Well, let's take a little look at how reactors are situated today.  Most
reactors seem to be outside of town a bit of a drive.  A small town tends
to be close to provide the manpower and the social resources for that
manpower.  I doubt that in HOE people are going to be more reactor
friendly than they are today.  Accidents do happen today, and imagine what
would happen if an irradiated ghost rock reactor had a leak into the
ground-water or other resources of a community.  I do believe they would
be targets, it's good military doctrine to take out the resources of your
opponent.  I'm sure an irradiated ghost rock reactor would be prime
targets, assuming that they existed.  A normal reactor could go unnoticed
and just still be sitting there in the forested countryside slowly being
overgrown with foilage.  Come to think of it, I do believe there would be
several nuclear reactors in the middle of the lovely rain forrest in the
Pacific Northwest.  I don't think there is so much a rarity to get a
control rod but it wouldn't be the easiest thing to find.  Thirteen years
of neglect in any nuclear reactor would make it almost impossible to
retrieve the control rod.  The reactor would probably be in lockdown, with
sealed doorways corridors full of all the mutated monsters that you find
in post apocolyptic nuclear reactors and probably in an out of the way
place.  Posses would have to locate a reactor that still existed, find 
it, deal with anyone who doesn't want it to be found, probably fight
with doombringers just because they seem appropriate, and then deal
with a dungeon crawl just to retrieve the fabled rod.  Sort of makes
it an adventure in itself just to retrieve one of these bloody things.

> And does a reactor still have to be functional to get a workable control rod 
> out of for your Glowstick?

I don't know if any reactors are still functional.  Maybe in one of those
top secret underground military bases that are powered by a self contained
nuclear reactor, but something like that would be so valueable and so
secret (to not have been bombed and all).  

Hmmm... this has all led me to wonder what is a control rod, I found this
at http://www.cannon.net/~gonyeau/nuclear/

Control Rods - Used to regulate the distribution of power in the reactor 
while the reactor in operating. The most important function is to insert
to shutdown or stop the nuclear fission process when required. An
automatic control system, or the operator, can initiate the shutdown. In
some reactors, all rods (29 to 100+, depending on reactor size) may insert 
in as short a time as 2 seconds. The control rods are made of materials
that quickly stop the nuclear reaction by absorbing the neutrons (i.e. the
materials divert the neutrons from being absorbed or causing fissions in
the fuel. Materials used include boron carbide, silver, indium, cadmium,
and hafnium.

So, if there's 29 to 100+ of these things per reactor, then I guess
finding them is the hard thing.  These are also found right in the reactor
next to the uranium so retrieving just one of these would put someone in
contact with radiation, the just kill you kind.  Now, if irradiated ghost
rock reactors do exist then you just have to deal with the mutate variety
of radiation, which isn't as bad in a game sense.  I also imagine these
things would be larger than I at first thought.  Reactor cores are 12 to
15 feet high.  The control rod would take up roughly half of that
I supose.  Probably a staff sized control rod would be best for game
terms.  

Hey, I seemed to ramble quite a bit on that one.  I hope this helps some.