MetaFilter posts tagged with Nuclear

The (nuclear) path not taken

Araucaria — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:23:19 -0800

Nuclear engineers are never taught about the other kind of nuclear reaction. But a working prototype was built over 40 years ago. "The thick hardbound volume was sitting on a shelf in a colleague’s office when Kirk Sorensen spotted it. A rookie NASA engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Sorensen was researching nuclear-powered propulsion, and the book’s title — Fluid Fuel Reactors — jumped out at him. He picked it up and thumbed through it. Hours later, he was still reading, enchanted by the ideas but struggling with the arcane writing. “I took it home that night, but I didn’t understand all the nuclear terminology,” Sorensen says. He pored over it in the coming months, ultimately deciding that he held in his hands the key to the world’s energy future." LFTR in under 10 minutes. The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor is an updated version of the nuclear technology developed at Oak Ridge National Labs in the '50s and '60s. The concept is inherently meltdown- and proliferation-resistant, and could lead to carbon-neutral energy production at about the same cost as current coal-fired power plants. Lots more information can be found at the Energy From Thorium blog, and three Google Tech talks will give you a solid background on the subject. They're summarized in the 10 minute remix above: * Dr. Joe Bonometti, 11/19/2008 * Dr. David LeBlanc, 2/20/2009 * Dr. Robert Hargraves, 5/26/2009

Arms Control Wonk

Burhanistan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:33:39 -0800

Arms Control Wonk - a collaborative blog detailing the ins and outs of strategic weapons programs around the world. Originally started by Jeffery Lewis (published articles). Some fun recent posts: The Blue and Yellow Bomb (a history of Sweden's canceled nuke program) Votkinsk Portal Monitoring Facility (detailing the US team stationed in Russia tasked with counting mobile missiles produced there) A criticism of the recent Seymour Hersh article on Pakistan's nukes And of course, The Fall's response.

Are nuclear weapons safe in Pakistan?

homunculus — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:44:09 -0800

Defending the Arsenal: In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe?

That's just normal oxidation.

exogenous — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:52:23 -0800

Removing 600 kilos of enriched U-235: the story of how, in 1994, the United States secretly removed from Kazakhstan enough purified uranium to make 24 nuclear weapons. (Full article with one photo.) Russian bomb-grade uranium is now being used in U.S. power plants.

Keeping an eye on and old friend

Burhanistan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:47:55 -0800

Russian strategic nuclear forces - an online watchdog of the movements of Russia's nuclear forces. With informed comments, a book, and six years of archives. Also, the Russians are going to name a ballistic missile submarine after Santa.

Gentlemen, you can't fight here! This is the War Room!

DreamerFi — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:00:16 -0800

1995 Contractor Study Finds that U.S. Analysts Exaggerated Soviet Aggressiveness and Understated Moscow's Fears of a U.S. First Strike. During a 1972 command post exercise, leaders of the Kremlin listened to a briefing on the results of a hypothetical war with the United States. A U.S. attack would kill 80 million Soviet citizens and destroy 85 percent of the country's industrial capacity. According to the recollections of a Soviet general who was present, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev "trembled" when he was asked to push a button, asking Soviet defense minister Grechko "this is definitely an exercise?" This story appears in a recently released two-volume study on Soviet Intentions, 1965-1985, prepared in 1995 by the Pentagon contractor BDM Corporation, and published today for the first time by the National Security Archive. Based on an extraordinarily revealing series of interviews with former senior Soviet defense officials--"unhappy Cold Warriors"--during the final days of the Soviet Union, the BDM study puts Soviet nuclear policy in a fresh light by highlighting Soviet leaders' recognition of the catastrophe of nuclear conflict, even while they supported preparations for fighting an unsurvivable war.

Amchitka Nuclear Test Videos

Effigy2000 — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:33:28 -0800

Back in the early 1960s, Amchitka, a volcanic, tectonically unstable island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska was selected by the United States Atomic Energy Commission to be the site for underground detonations of nuclear weapons. Three such tests were carried out and, thanks to Youtube, you too can watch some declassified US Government Amchitka test films. The first, named Long Shot, was an 80-kiloton blast (video) and was followed by Milrow (1-megaton) (video) and Cannikin (said to be under 5-megaton) (video). There's also a declassified video that discusses the program at Amchitka in more detail.

Can game theory predict when Iran will get the bomb?

djgh — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:57:17 -0800

Can game theory predict when Iran will get the bomb? Bruce Bueno de Mesquita thinks yes. (Previously)

Bringin' 'em down. Or, over.

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:01:20 -0800

From Sheffield, England to Yongbyon, North Korea, nuclear plant cooling towers are coming down! And pretty much without a hitch. Things didn't go quite so well, though, for an old flour factory in Turkey, which just rolled over onto its roof. D'oh!

Under a Nuclear Cloud

spock — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:15:29 -0800

Under a Nuclear Cloud (Reportage by Gettyimages) The results of using villagers as human guinea pigs in "preparing" for nuclear war.

Yesterday's Energy of Tomorrow...and more

Miko — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:05:33 -0800

Peak Oil, 1925. In 2000, 20% of new buildings will be solar equipped. By the late 1990s, 90% of the world's energy will be nuclear-generated. These and other erroneous projections are being collected as part of the Forecast Project on the website Inventing Green: The Lost History of Alternative Energy in America.

Where the bombs were built

of strange foe — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:54:39 -0800

Photos of nuclear-explosives production facilities built during the Manhattan Project, by photographer Martin Miller. He also took photos of nuclear missile sites built during the cold war.

1983: The Brink of Apocalypse

empath — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:22:13 -0800

1983: The Brink of Apocalypse -- In 1983 the NATO war exercise Able Archer almost started a nuclear war. Unknown to NATO, just a few months earlier a false alarm had already put the Soviet leadership on edge, and the exercise triggered preparations for a counter attack in the Soviet military. Only a few double agents on each side may have saved the world from nuclear armageddon. Bonus MAD Documentary: The Brink of Eternity (2, 3, 4, 5). Of course, if more world leaders listened to Matthew Broderick, none of this would of happened.

Nuclear Family Fun!

wendell — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:58:45 -0800

How many nuclear warheads are within rainge of YOUR town? Finally, a webgadget to let us know.
via The Ridiculant

Homo Superior!

dunkadunc — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:45:11 -0800

How Nuclear Radiation Can Change Our Race. The excellent Modern Mechanix brings us Mechanix Illustrated's uninformed 1953 article on the effects of nuclear fallout.
But why, then, don't we have our superintelligent bobblehead beagles?

Soaring, Cryptography and Nuclear Weapons

kliuless — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:34:44 -0800

The threat of nuclear war is bigger than you think. (via)

North Korea threatens, again

NoraReed — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:19:31 -0800

North Korea announces it will no longer abide by the ceasefire that ended the Korean war. Previously. BreakingNews on Twitter announces this. Confirmed by Yonhap, Malaysian Insider and Reuters.

Today a sewing machine - tomorrow a dirty bomb

rongorongo — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:48:45 -0800

Dig out your old Singer sewing machines from the attic and sell them to somebody in Saudi Arabia for a fortune on account of the red mercury they contain. Red mercury allows nuclear bombs to be constructed without the need for plutonium [previously]. Red mercury came originally from Russia. Or from the Nazis. Red mercury was invented to lure terrorists in sting operations. It is a medicine for treating impotency. Red mercury will bring long life. It is cinnabar. It is mercury iodide. It is Lithium 6. It is a Bose Einstein Condensate. It is a ballotechnic mercury compound. It is a codeword. It's a game. It costs $300,000 per kilo.

Strings, not Threads, nor Duct Tape

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 02:17:35 -0800

Nuclear puppet shows: Atomic survival PSAs by the U.S. Civil Defense

So here's my trip to Chernobyl in pictures.

milquetoast — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:44:38 -0800

So here's my trip to Chernobyl in pictures.

Nuclear Proliferation Has A Home on the Interwebs

brookeb — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:02:04 -0800

One of the kings of nuclear proliferation has his own website. No mention of house arrest though.

You Light Up My Life (In More Ways Than One)

Xurando — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:03:57 -0800

A visit to Russian abandoned nuclear lighthouses.. Despite the hazards, there has been much vandalism of these sites. The IAEA has taken on the task of decommissioning these radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG's).

Nuclear Urbanism

homunculus — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 21:06:33 -0800

Ground Zero. This Google Maps mashup shows the thermal damage caused by various nuclear weapons or an asteroid on the city of your choice.

Nuclear war, Steve Guttenberg, and other horrors

Joe Beese — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:43:13 -0800

Just over 25 years ago, ABC broadcast the most watched made-for-television movie of all time. You probably remember where you were when you saw it. [last link possibly NSFW]

A Review of Criticality Accidents

ikkyu2 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:34:42 -0800

A Review of Criticality Accidents (3.7 MB pdf) Do you like reading comp.risks, or CVR transcripts from famous plane crashes? Then you may enjoy this technical analysis of 60 accidents where improper handling of fissile materials led to unexpected critical mass. All the famous names are here - Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, the Argonne National Lab - as well as the famous players: the Demon Core that claimed two lives in separate accidents, and later became the heart of the Bikini atoll ABLE nuclear test; Harry Dahglian; Louis Slotin; and even a cameo by Richard Feynman, who comments on the Dragon experiment in a footnote. Watch for the telltale signs of prompt critical - the blue glow, the flash of light, the wave of heat - and look up Roentgen Equivalent Man, and tuballoy in the comprehensive glossary at the end. I can't be the only one who likes this stuff, can I? (Via AskMe.)