The Weather Thread, It's spring! Options

[Fethenwen]

How's the weather right now where you live?

Here in Finland it SUCKS! It snowed again this morning, and now it is melting a bit. But we still have lots of it, I like snow, but this kind of snow is not nice. There's water under it, and it gathers in the streets like porridge, making my feet and pants soaking wet :(

[Kora]

It's been rather sunny and warm over here as of late (seeing as I've been able to wear a skirt without freezing my bum off in the process).

On a darker note, I once again find myself the bearer of bad news (not exactly tightly related to the weather, but if the situation gets any worse, they will be). Apparently, God Almighty deemed that we needed something to scare us even worse that the floodwaters (which are starting to calm down). Yesterday, it has come to my attention that an accident has occured at the Kozloduy atomic power plant, in neighbouring Bulgaria, across the Danube. A circulation cooling pomp, belonging to reactor no. 5 has been forcibly shut down, causing 22 of the 61 protection elements (neutron absorbers, which control the nuclear reaction within the reactor itself) to stop functioning. This is very bad news, since atomic-safety laws clearly state that if more than one protection element is not working properly, an emergency alert should be initiated. Right now, the Bulgarian government is being accused by the International Agency for Atomic Power of trying to cover up the crisis. And, what is truly ironic is that this fine mess occures at exactly 20 years after the Cernobyl disaster.

I for one, hope that it is a minor incident, blown out of proportion by mediatic hysteria, but the information that I have seen so far tells me otherwise. My father is a specialist in nuclear power and I have learned quite a lot from him over the years. He and Ivan Ivanov, the director of Kozlodui, are friends and so he might be able to get information directly from the source (that is, if Ivanov hasn't been ordered to stay silent on the matter).

Next week, I'm leaving for Cernavoda, to see my family on the first of May and I'll be able to get some inside info on the whole situation from my father. Right now, I have a splitting headache and a wish that humans would stop fiddling with forces they can barely comprehend.