jargon (From the nuclear power industry) An emergency
positioned to be easily hit by evacuating personnel. In
general, this is *not* something you
frob lightly; these
often initiate expensive events (such as Halon dumps) and are
SCRAM stands for Safety Control Rod Ax Man. In the early days
of nuclear power, boron moderator rods were raised and lowered
on ropes. In the event of a runaway chain reaction, a man
with an axe would chop the rope and drop the rods into the
nuclear pile to stop the reaction.
(2003-05-17)