Radiation Hazard (The Stasis Stories #3) Read online

  “Ah,” Lee said as if she understood, but she knew she’d better do some serious reading. “And what was your plan for using Stade? I understood the plan for stazing the casks out on the pad. We’d just set them on a Stade plate, wrap them in Mylar and staze ’em, right?”

  “That’d be my dry cask plan,” Kaem said. “I’ll bet the NRC’s gonna want to have a more professional step than the one you described as ‘wrap them in Mylar’ though. As far as stazing the fuel rods while they’re still in the spent fuel pool, we’d just build something like that fifteen-centimeter cube we’ve got in the lab, but much bigger. It’d be complete with all the mirrors, microwave and laser emitters. Submerge it in the spent fuel pool. They’d move the fuel rod assemblies into it the same way they move them into casks. We’d staze, thus forming Stade casks containing the fuel rod assemblies. Doing it while they’re underwater would simplify the whole process. They wouldn’t have to wait years before casking. They wouldn’t have to buy million-dollar casks. The Stade cask would be safer to store. We’d get some money to support our ideas. It’d be a good deal all around.”

  “Well, the guys that’re currently selling the dry casks might not think it’s such a good deal. What was that about terrorism? Someone flies an airplane into the spent fuel pool or something?”

  “Actually, all they’ve got to do is destroy the system that cools the water in the pool. If you stop cooling the water, pretty soon it starts to boil. Once it boils away, the fuel gets hot enough to melt. When it melts together into a pile it catches on fire, releasing radioactive gasses. If the gases get out… that’s a bad deal all around.”

  “Thanks,” Lee said, wondering how Kaem knew all this stuff as a physics undergrad. She decided that if he’d had courses in nuclear physics, they might’ve taught him some of it. Or he looked it up and, being so damned smart, he grasped all of it in no time.

  They rode along in silence for a while. Lee felt like she should be picking Kaem’s brain, but she also felt like she shouldn’t waste his time before she’d researched some of the questions herself. If I’m going to ask questions, I want them to be on a higher level than I’d be able to achieve right now.

  Then she thought of a question that’d been bugging her back at the nuclear facility. “Kaem, back at the plant Ron just assumed Gunnar was the boss and pretty much ignored you. This is right after Norton, the guy from GLI, did the same thing. I’d think that’d be infuriating. Didn’t you feel… I don’t know, disrespected?”

  Kaem leaned forward to look past Lee. He grinned, “Gunnar has such an elder statesman look about him, it’s no mystery why they’d think he was in charge.”

  Gunnar turned to look at Lee, lifted his chin, extended his pinky, and said, “My word, young lady, don’t you recognize sophistication when you see it?”

  Lee laughed, but then turned serious. “You don’t think it’s just old-fashioned racism?”

  Still smiling, Kaem shrugged. “Partly that, and partly ageism where the older gentleman is assumed to be the boss.” He arched an eyebrow, “And don’t forget sexism, he didn’t think you were in charge either.”

  “But… why didn’t you set him straight? You deserve respect.”

  “Ah…” Kaem said, looking off into the distance. “My philosophy is that, if that’s so, eventually I’ll get respect. There was a man in my neighborhood when I was growing up… He was always demanding respect and boiling over when he thought he’d been dissed. But he got falling-down drunk fairly often and beat his wife sometimes. No one respected him. I asked my dad about it once and he said, ‘If you want respect, you’ve got to be and act respectable.’ Demanding it might get people to pretend they respect you, but deep down inside they won’t.”

  “Your father seems like a wise man. But… don’t you think racism makes it harder for people of color to get respect?”

  “Oh,” Kaem barked a single laugh, “definitely. But I still think the way to get respect is to be respectable, not to demand it. To be honest, when someone does offer me respect, I’m usually surprised they got past their unconscious biases to do so.” He smiled, “I also have to admit it makes it all the sweeter when it does happen.”

  Uncomfortably, Lee said, “I think this is what women have said for a long time. That they have to work twice as hard, to get half as much credit.”

  Kaem nodded slowly. “You’re probably right. I hope you don’t think I’m trying to be flip. I just don’t think demanding respect gets it for you. So, I don’t call people on it. I just keep plugging away, hoping someday they’ll decide I deserve respect.”

  Lee grinned at him. “Easy for you to say Mr. Genius. You know you’re gonna get it.”

  He studied her a moment, “I think you’re going to as well. Give yourself time.”

  ~~~

  They met the real estate agent at the toxic property that had fouled the farms around it. Lee rolled her eyes when this woman also assumed Gunnar was the leader of their group.

  It’d been a site where large numbers of hazardous chemicals had been stored in barrels awaiting remediation. The original owner had a small factory that produced some chemical waste he’d had to store safely. When his business failed, he’d decided to make money as a hazardous waste repository. For substantial fees, he’d taken in and stored barrels in a large basin lined with clay, concrete, and a plastic membrane.

  He’d died. No one wanted to buy the property from his estate and his heirs had refused it. The barrels corroded and leaked, filling the basin with toxic chemicals that reacted with one another in various unknown ways. Some of the chemicals had proven to be able to soften the plastic liner. An earthquake, extremely unusual for the area, had cracked the concrete and clay.

  The whole thing had slowly leaked and eventually seeped into the water table of the surrounding land.

  The government was looking for someone to clean it up and would pay them to do it. They hadn’t had any takers.

  Kaem asked, “So, say you remove the waste, where do you take it?”

  She shrugged. “That’s a good question. My understanding is that some of it can be incinerated.”

  Kaem blinked, “Which parts?”

  She shrugged again, “That’d take some research on your part.”

  Lee gazed over the basin. Hundreds, possibly thousands of barrels stood moldering in what she thought was about a foot and a half of dark standing liquid. Whiffs of irritating gas occasionally came to her despite the fact the tiny bit of wind wasn’t blowing their direction. The barrels she could see were unlabeled and most were corroded. This is an ugly problem, she thought. One just made for stasis.

  The agent drove them to the two closest adjoining farms. After they got out and walked around a bit, Kaem said, “The vegetation seems fine. I was expecting stunted, deformed, and dying plants.”

  The woman said, “Yeah, they look fine, and the harvests were good. However, traces of some banned substances were present in the crops so they couldn’t be sold. Not acceptable to break the parcels up and sell them for residential lots. Industrial uses are about the only things that can be approved.”

  “What if someone cleaned up the toxic pool?”

  “Yeah. The experts I’ve talked to think the surrounding land would probably become arable after a few years as the chemicals in the water table washed away, but even if the dump had already been cleaned up, the people who own the farms wouldn’t be able to keep up the taxes and other payments on the land without the income from it.”

  “You think their price is firm?”

  She shrugged, “It is for now on three of the parcels. But, after a couple of months on the market, you’re the only people to come take a look. After a few more weeks with no interest, I predict the price is going to come down.”

  “How much is the state willing to pay to get that dump cleaned up?”

  The woman glanced at Gunnar, obviously wondering why Kaem was doing the talking. “Two hundred and fifty thousand at present. I predict that’ll a
lso go up when nobody shows any interest in taking it on.”

  Kaem stared thoughtfully into the distance for a few minutes, then turned back to the lady. “Could you work up a deal where we asked for three hundred thousand to clean up the waste and then used that as our down payment on buying the five farms?”

  She glanced at Gunnar, who looked back blandly. She frowned, “Who’s the ‘we’ in this scenario?”

  “Our company, Staze.” Kaem spelled it for her. “It’s a new company. It’s based in Charlottesville at present, but it’s looking to move to an area where it could own substantial sections of contiguous land designated for industrial development.”

  Giving Kaem a dubious look, the woman lifted her phone and asked it for information on the company.

  Lee thought the agent wouldn’t get any info because, as far as she knew, Staze still didn’t have a website or any internet footprint to speak of. To her surprise, the woman did get web pages of some kind. She started to frown.

  Looking up, the woman said, “This company just formed?”

  Kaem nodded.

  “And you’re the CTO?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  The woman rolled her eyes. “And the CEO’s anonymous?”

  Kaem nodded, “We call him Mr. X.”

  Shaking her head, the agent said, “There’s no way I could get a bank to sign off on this deal with no more in the way of bona fides than that.”

  Looking serious as could be, Kaem asked, “Would you at least try for us?”

  She looked uncertain for a moment, then said, “Normally I’ll do just about anything for a client, but this…” She snorted, “I know it’d just be a waste of my time.”

  Kaem nodded, “So we should look for a different agent?”

  The woman rolled her eyes. “You sure should, honey, you sure should. I don’t think you’ll have much luck though.”

  ~~~

  Back in Gunnar’s truck on the way home, Lee asked, “So, did that interaction piss you off?”

  Kaem gave her a surprised look. “No. Should it have?”

  “You know the biggest problem with that deal was the color of your skin.”

  Kaem looked up and to the side as if considering. Pursing his lips, he said, “It was a problem, sure. But I think my age was an even bigger problem.”

  “Come on!”

  Looking straight ahead down the road as they rode, Kaem said meditatively, “You know, I had my first Staze business meeting at the Cavalier Buffalo. The engineer I met with seemed a little freaked that I hadn’t even graduated yet.”

  “You’re talking about me?!” Lee said.

  He grinned, “Yeah. You should have some sympathy for this poor real estate agent whose major offense is that she thinks I’m too young, don’t you think?” When Lee didn’t say anything, he shrugged. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think a twenty-three-year-old is too young to be buying two and a half million dollars’ worth of property that includes a hazardous waste dump.”

  “You’re not buying it. Your company’s buying that land.”

  “A company she’s never heard of and for which she can only find a two-page website?”

  “Okay,” Lee said, conceding. “But I still think she’s racist.”

  “Well, maybe, but I think she’s more of an ageist,” Kaem said with a grin. He lowered his voice, “In either case, I am going to enjoy buying that land through a different realtor.”

  Lee sniffed, and tried to look haughty, “I don’t think Arya’s going to let you do it.”

  Kaem guffawed and slapped his knee, “You’ve got me there. Getting past Arya’s going to be a lot tougher than dodging prejudice.”

  Suddenly realizing she’d been leaving Gunnar completely out of these conversations, Lee leaned forward, “What do you think about all this, Gunnar?”

  Grouchy as ever, Gunnar replied, “Don’t you even try to get me involved in your racism discussions. I don’t have any standing on those issues. What I’m worried about is what big brother’s gonna do when the NRC learns about Stade’s properties.”

  Lee glanced at Kaem.

  He raised an eyebrow at her.

  They all rode in silence for a few minutes. Lee again began worrying she was wasting an opportunity to pick Kaem’s mind.

  Then Kaem spoke, not to her but his phone, asking it to call Mr. Art Turpin. When it connected, he said, “Hello, Mr. Turpin. I realized I forgot to talk to you about another of the items on my agenda.”

  After a brief pause, he resumed, “Yes, our engineer, Ms. Lee, who you just met, she had an idea you might like. Essentially it would enable someone to safely go in and inspect the reactor, possibly engaging in some repairs or remediation. If I connected her into this call, could she explain her concept to you?”

  Thus, Lee found herself explaining her idea for Stade armor or a Stade robot. One that would gain imaging through relatively radiation-free light reflected into a camera. And how it might have external Stade manipulators that allowed some kinds of repairs or remediation.

  Turpin got excited. Though he did point out difficulties, he also suggested remedies.

  Lee thought about her armor the rest of the way home.

  And how Kaem had said the idea was hers even though it was at least half his…

  Chapter Four

  In the morning, Arya entered the big room just in front of Gunnar. She was carrying a stack of cloth. Eyeing it, Gunnar asked, “Ooh! Are those our Stade jackets?”

  Arya nodded and set them on the table. She turned and headed silently back out to the anteroom where she’d been spending most of her time. Gunnar looked after her a moment, then turned to look at Kaem. His eyes were following her wistfully. Lee looked apprehensive.

  I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll bet it has something to do with hormones, Gunnar thought irritably.

  He set down the box he’d carried in from the outside and lifted Kaem’s jacket—recognizable even folded by its smaller size—off of his and then picked up his own. Shaking it out at arm’s length, he thought, It looks professionally done. Bulky. A lot like an overly long motorcycle jacket. Feels lighter than you’d expect, probably because the Stade plates are mostly air. Oh, and they were cast under suction, so they’re a tiny bit lighter than air.

  Opening the zipper on the front, he slipped it on, thinking it fit much better than he expected, then realizing that was because it’d been shaped to fit a body by the curvature of the plates. I still think I should’ve had it shaped to me instead of a damn mannikin.

  His next thought was, It’s hot! Damn! It’ll be great in the winter but there’s no way anyone could wear this thing in the summer. He glanced around the room, confirming there was no mirror. I guess I won’t get to see how great I look in this thing till I get home.

  He looked over at Kaem who’d been watching him try it on. “You gonna try yours?”

  Kaem gave him a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “This winter. When it’s cool enough to wear the world’s warmest jacket.”

  Gunnar started taking his off. “What if yours needs fitting?” He thought, Something’s going on between him and Arya. I sure as hell hope it doesn’t mess up our business.

  Tentatively, Lee asked, “Do those coats have Stade in them?”

  Gunnar nodded, “Armor plated motorcycle jackets. Better insulation than puffy fleece. Badass, huh?”

  Getting up, Lee started his way. “Can I check it out?”

  Gunnar handed it to her and she began feeling the Stade plates in the cloth. “This is very cool! Can I try it on?”

  Gunnar picked up the other jacket, “Try Kaem’s. It’ll fit you better.”

  Without taking the jacket he held out, she turned to Kaem, “Is that okay?”

  Kaem’s eyes went to the anteroom door, then back to her. “Sure.”

  I can tell he’s not happy about it, Gunnar thought. I’m thinking he’s worried Arya might see her in it. He glanced at Lee. She can tell it too.

  Sur
e enough, she quickly slipped into Kaem’s jacket, exclaimed over how warm and light it was, then had it back off mere seconds later. She hastily folded it back the way Arya had brought it into the room and hustled back to her design station. There she focused her attention on the huge screen and its display of something that looked like a box on wheels.

  Gunnar wandered over to look over Lee’s shoulder, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Kaem was trying his jacket on. To Lee, he said, “What the hell is that supposed to be?”

  She didn’t look back at him. “It’s a first run at something you could use to inspect the inside of the reactor’s containment structure.”

  “Containment structure?”

  She nodded. “That’s what they call the heavy-duty, dome-shaped building over the reactor itself. It protects the reactor from terrorist strikes and holds in radiation leaks. After a meltdown, it’s usually so radioactive that people can’t go inside. That means they can’t even figure out what things look like in there.”

  “I thought you were our aerospace engineer. What’re you working on this for?”

  Lee glanced over at Kaem, then said, “Space-Gen’s engine molds are still being machined so I’m not going out to staze them until next week. We don’t have much in the way of our own aerospace work until we build up the capital to pay for it.” She shrugged, “So, I’m working on this. If we can sell it to Surbury, maybe we’ll have money for our other ideas.”

  “Looks like a floor polisher in an oversized box.”

  Lee snorted. “That’s essentially what it is.” She waved a finger over the big box. “This is the radiation-free chamber. The operator, all the motors, and the electronic equipment are completely enclosed in Stade.” She pointed down toward the bottom, “This is a Stade differential that’ll turn the wheels. The wheels’ll be made of Stade except for an outer layer of rubber tread. The wheels are out in the radiation environment, though they’ll be protected by this skirt.”

  Gunnar pointed, “And this stuff the driver’s sitting on top of?”