Slashdot Mirror
Three Mile Island Memories
theodp writes "Thirty years after the partial nuclear core meltdown at Three Mile Island, Robert Cringely describes the terrible TMI user interface, blaming a confluence of bad design decisions — some made by Congress — for making the accident vastly worse. While computers could be used to monitor the reactor, US law prohibited using computers to directly control nuclear power plants — men would do that. So, when the (one) computer noticed a problem, it would set off audible and visual alarms, and send a problem description to a line printer. Simple, except the computer noticed 700 things wrong in the first few minutes of the TMI accident, causing the one audible alarm to ring continuously until it was shut off as useless. The one visual alarm blinked for days, indicating nothing useful. And the print queue was quickly flooded with 700 error reports followed by thousands of updates and corrections, making it almost instantly hours behind. The operators had to guess at what the problem was."
If your user interface lags behind by two hours and the UI is the only way to find out about the extremely complicated and intricate details coming out of a myriad of sensors that are inaccessible to people for safety reasons... I suppose you might be entirely wrong.
In this case, yes, the user interface was necessary for the operators to do their job. Are you going to tell me that submarine operators should rely on their "gut feeling" rather than a measurement of external pressure or depth to determine whether the submarine is safe? These are jobs that can't be done by even the most skilled operator because the information is completely walled off from them for the safety and integrity of the facility.
As far as I can tell, you're advocating that we should hire psychics to determine the safety of the nuclear plant and pay them exorbitantly because spending a single dime on a good interface is wasted money. Sometimes, a $50,000 idiot proof interface is exactly what's called for, rather than intentionally using outdated technology and hoping a printer will provide information fast enough to prevent imminent disaster.
How many people get sick and die every single year due to the emissions of coal plants?
How much radiation do we all absorb every single year due to the TONS of uranium and thorium oxide particles released by burning coal?
The modern environmentalist movement is the epitome of intolerant idealism. Fossil fuels are a horrible and destructive source of power and they really are slowly poisoning the planet and everyone agrees about this. But then why the hell won't you let us get away from them? We try to build new hydroelectric dams, and we hear about how the lake will destroy the local ecosystem. We try to build wind farms, but Ted Kennedy sues because they'll get in the way of his view and they kill birds. We try to build solar plants in the middle of the Mojave desert, and the Sierra Club protests. We try to ramp up solar cell production, even, and protestors are demonstrating because of the chemicals used in silicon processing. We try to build nuclear power plants, but despite one western incident (which resulted in at most almost no casualties) happening in fifty full years, a safety record probably unmatched by any other industry in history, you refuse. We try to build a repository to get rid of the waste, and Harry Reid stops it. I have not a single doubt in my mind that when the first commercial fusion plant opens, you will be protesting because some of its components will eventually become radioactive and need to be disposed of.
You demand that we engineers and scientists come up with a better alternative, then kick us in our faces every time because nothing is perfect. Nothing we ever come up with is ever going to be good enough, is it? Not even a magic-based reactor that poofs free electric out of nowhere! Well, welcome to real life. Enjoy your stay - America now burns more coal than ever because we aren't deploying the one presently-viable alternative (nuclear) that we have.