Related tags:
nuclear + (6)

They had to be fully autonomous, because they were situated hundreds and hundreds miles aways from any populated areas. After reviewing different ideas on how to make them work for a years without service and any external power supply, Soviet engineers decided to implement atomic energy to power up those structures. So, special lightweight small atomic reactors were produced in limited series to be delivered to the Polar Circle lands and to be installed on the lighthouses.
posted by cthuljew on Mar 26, 2013 - 14 comments

Can you split atoms in your kitchen? "My project is to build a working nuclear reactor. Not to gain electricity, just for fun and to see if it's possible to split atoms at home..." [scroll down to the bottom for the beginning of the experiment]. [more inside]
posted by Sijeka on Aug 5, 2011 - 104 comments

Jonathan Golob at Dear Science.org has a series of posts up about nuclear power. Topics include: The physics behind nuclear power, the inner workings of a reactor, nuclear radiation, nuclear waste, the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and the future of nuclear power. Also in a truncated podcast form. [more inside]
posted by Weebot on Jun 19, 2008 - 2 comments

The hippies next door are installing solar panels. Me, I'm waiting for my Toshiba Home Nuclear Reactor. I'm no early adopter, either; up in Galena the grizzlies have been keeping their dens warm and hot for several years. Thinking of becoming the first nuclear power on your block? Lots of bullet points, links, and some pretty pix and diagrams in this .pdf and this wiki. (Via Instapundit.)
posted by jfuller on Dec 22, 2007 - 60 comments

The SL-1 Reactor, part of the short-lived Army nuclear power program, became America's only fatal nuclear accident when it exploded in its warehouse, killing three technicians.
posted by Ridx on Apr 3, 2006 - 20 comments

ITER goes to France. Amazing stuff happens at 100 million degrees Celsius.
posted by magullo on Jun 28, 2005 - 19 comments

Need a power source for your electric car? Be careful building a nuclear power plant in your back yard, or you could be the center of the next suburban superfund cleanup.
And it is perhaps best that he does not work on the ship's eight reactors, for EPA scientists worry that his previous exposure to radioactivity may have greatly cut short his life. All the radioactive materials he experimented with can enter the body through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact and then deposit in the bones and organs, where they can cause a host of ailments, including cancer.
posted by b1tr0t on Jun 28, 2005 - 19 comments

Top this, MacGyver A college freshman and inveterate tinkerer followed Philo Farnsworth's designs to build a workable fusion reactor out of junk. via Macintouch
posted by adamrice on Sep 17, 2003 - 26 comments

Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout. As the article says, nobody really needs an unsafe homemade nuclear reactor, especially one made of duct tape an aluminum foil. That didn't stop one teenager from trying....
posted by geneablogy on Feb 19, 2002 - 8 comments