So here I was playing around in GoogleEarth (I am addicted to it BTW) and was flying over the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai. This is the place where all the nuclear research brains of India hang out. (My Dad would of course dispute that fact as he worked for the Engineering Division – you know – the guys that actually build the big nuclear power reactors – while the scientists play around with the toy reactors). There’s probably a greater concentration of PhD’s in this 2 square mile complex than anywhere else on the planet. And of course there are a bunch of Nuclear Reactors. Here’s an aerial shot of the complex. Click on the images to open the full size images.
So I zoomed in on the complex and something caught my eye. Here’s the image of the two main nuclear reactors – Dhruva and CIRUS. What caught my eye was this bizarre pattern just North of the CIRUS reactor beside the waste treatment ponds. Now, I have actually been to this place and seen the reactor complex. I did a summer Co-op there during my Junior year in college. But for the life of me I couldn’t remember something that big being there. And looking at the image you can see that it is large, almost as large as the CIRUS complex. I racked my brain for days trying to think of what that could be. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about nuclear technology, but this one had me truly stumped. The pattern just didn’t make sense. I thought of underground bunkers, baby cyclotrons, UFO landing strip, you name it. I thought of what could have been there that has since been removed. I was deep in full blown tin foil bunker mindset.
And then perusing around the web one day, I came upon this picture of the same reactor complex.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Landscaping! Of all the things it could have been, it turned out to be just a creative landscape artist. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. If you look closer you can see his/her handiwork all around the complex. I guess someone thought funky patterns like those were appropriate for a nuclear research center. LOL.
Of course this got me thinking about all those military recon guys poring over high altitude pictures during the cold war. I wonder if any of them ever made a stupid mistake like I did? Heh.
Oh and I used to live less than 2 miles from this place, so you know I glow green during the night.
