Geiger Counter - best days

I did my schooling in zion matriculation school. During my final year in school, we had a day free as the professionals from the kalpakkam power plant came to our school to help us understand the aspects of radioactivity and the usuage of geiger counter which measures the radioactivity. It was August 1, 2003. I couldnt remember much of the happenings on the day but i do remember two things.

We were taken to some room, where they had radioactive material and they were demonstrating the usage of geiger counter. As usual, in the room, we made a noise. And the guy who was doing the experiment told us to keep quiet. He then continued the experiments and demonstrated how radioactivity was measured. The usually measured reading was in 1000s. And we took a few readings and the guy told us to do the calculations which we never did. He also told us that prolonged exposure to radioactivity can cause us various problems in our health and ultimately death.

After that we came to class. The professors came to class and explained about a theory.( i really dont know which was first: The theory or the experimentation) I could remember a question i asked them. If there is some problem in the kalpakkam nuclear power plant, then how much far would the destruction reach. He asserted that there wont be any nuclear disasters as it is very safe and told us that there are lots of precautions that were taken. I insisted that even if something goes wrong(worst case scenario) how long would the destruction reach. He told that such situation would be brought under control and the destruction can be stopped in 8 KM. During those days i used to think kalpakkam was in the north of chennai. But it is in south of chennai near the seashore. They answered a lot of other questions