Jerry_B said:The radiation side of the story sounds somewhat iffy, especially in light of the other bit of the tale which describes the areas as being an advanced defence system installed by aliens. Seems unlikely that it would be prone to such problems, or even use radioactives. But it seems to be part and parcel of the nuts and bolts sci-fi ufological angle.
Jerry_B said:[N]uclear seems a bit old hat, in a sort of 1950s UFO-lore way. Remember also that alot of UFO occupants allegedly seemed keen to keep us away from nuclear energy in it's various forms Either way, it seems a bit tacked on to this story to give it a bit of a nuts and bolts edge.
Pardon me for jumping in here, but I have a few questions to ask regarding the above quotes.
I tend to agree with the 'iffy-ness' of the whole alien-installed ancient advanced kinetic defense system idea; it's just another example of a certain type of UFO enthusiasts' propensity to take unsubstantiated rumors and armchair-theorize all kinds of detailed stories. (I say 'theorize' but real theories are hypotheses that have withstood a respectable amount of attempts at falsification, so a better word might be 'fictionalize' or perhaps "bullshit")
So I am in no way defending the idea. But when you say "Seems unlikely that it would be prone to such problems" what problems, exactly, are you talking about? If you mean the radiation, then you are making assumptions about the machine and it's purpose, and about the builders, and their purposes, as well as what choices they would have made, and why.
As for nuclear energy and the use of radioactive isotopes as an energy source being 1950s 'old hat' and thus incongruous with vastly superior tech...I completely agree. But really, no one (as far as I know) said or implied what, exactly, was causing the (alleged) radiation from the (hypothetical) machinery. Any energetic power source involves radiation of high-energy particles. Or the radiation may even be the result of some process not even connected with power generation; a sufficiently powerful magnetic field would cause a radiation of high-energy particles by interacting with the particles in the molecules of our atmosphere.
It just seems to me like you heard "radiation" and that made you think of nuclear power plants and nuclear fission and radioactive isotopes and radiation leaks and radioactive waste, all of which are 'problems' the human race has been living with for over half a century, so it's old hat. But those are human perspectives and cannot be applied to any aliens, or their devices.