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It Ain't All Desert


Eric
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I spent about a year in Arizona (Glendale and Globe) back in 79-80.  Mostly for work, but we did get to see a lot of the sights.  South Mountain at night offered a quite spectacular view of Phoenix.  Sedona was simply amazing.  But what really struck me was the Grand Canyon.  I remember thinking how pictures simply do not do it justice.  To this day my opinion has not changed, despite all the amazing photos I've seen over the years.

Thanks for the memories.

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9 hours ago, minderasr said:

Grand Canyon.  I remember thinking how pictures simply do not do it justice. 

The human eye can absorb data far beyond even the most sophisticated camera setup. At a minor level this frustrates me when trying to capture sunsets. 

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These last two pics were taken by a cousin of mine in the Globe/Miami area of central AZ, a couple of days ago.

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When I went to the Hanford Nuclear reservation on business I was surprised to find it's in the "High Desert".  Ground consists of small rounded rocks nothing else.  580 square miles.

It's "on" the Columbia River and near the tri-cities of  Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland

In that "high desert" sits the largest Nuclear Submarine fleet in the world. (their claim, not mine).  

These are decommissioned nuke subs.  The sub is built around the reactor as the ends are added to it.

When the Sub is de-commissioned and still has a radioactive reactor, the ends are cut off and the middle containing the reactor is set in concrete out on the desert here.

This sight is also one of the Atomic energy weapons lab sites.

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12 minutes ago, NPTim said:

Bisbee?

Nah, it's Jerome, AZ. You have to be about half mountain goat to live there. There is a lot more up & down than side to side in that town. It's an interesting place to visit. They aren't as touristy as Sedona, but they definitely encourage tourism.

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3 hours ago, janice6 said:

When the Sub is de-commissioned and still has a radioactive reactor, the ends are cut off and the middle containing the reactor is set in concrete out on the desert here.

Wonder how practical it would be to repurpose those for civilian electrical generation 

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3 hours ago, NPTim said:

Bisbee?

The two towns do share some similar terrain though, don't they? They are both situated at around 5,000 feet of elevation, but they are about half the state apart. Jerome is a lot greener.

 

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1 hour ago, railfancwb said:

Wonder how practical it would be to repurpose those for civilian electrical generation 

From what he told me I would guess that they are pretty deterioated and more risky than useful.  Leaks, contamination, etc.  My family works in the nuke power generation and much of the piping for steam and heat extractors do deterioate over time and aren't economical to repair.  I don't know about these, but some have liquid Sodium loop to transfer heat from the reactor to the water loop and when the sodium cools it hardens and your screwed.

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