io9: nukes

Your Neighborhood Nuke Reactor

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:58:28 PST

The Hyperion Power Module Neighborhood Nuclear Reactor is the size of a hot tub and could provide power for your whole neighborhood! At least, that's what their website claims. Bill Christensen over at Technovelgy points out that other companies have claimed this before, and it came to nothing. But the desire for neighborhood nukes keeps coming back, probably because we've seen them in scifi before - most notably in Heinlein's Friday, where small "shipstones" provide enough energy for a whole space vessel. [via Technovelgy]

A Grand Tour of Our Nuclear World

Ed Grabianowski — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:08:51 PDT

Did you ever wonder how the U.S. went from inventing atomic weapons in the 1940s to having a full-scale nuclear weapon industry a decade later? Ever want to visit an atomic test site? Wonder where they make weapons-grade uranium? Ponder the current state of the U.S. nuclear stockpile? Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger's recent book, A Nuclear Family Vacation, has the answers.

A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry is like a travelogue/history lesson/geopolitical thriller that traces the development of U.S. nuclear facilities across the nation and weaves it together with the uncertainty of today's nuclear nightmare. Hodge and Weinberger visited missile silos and uranium plants, traveled to Iran, and explored several old test sites near Las Vegas and in New Mexico. This isn't just a guide to nuclear tourism - they discuss controversial proposals for expanding American nuclear stockpiles and resuming American nuclear testing.

The book makes an excellent companion piece to Trinity and Beyond, the Shatner-narrated documentary of U.S. atomic testing that is long on stunning HD mushroom clouds but a little short on detailed information. You can listen to Hodge and Weinberger talk about A Nuclear Family Vacation on NPR's Fresh Air. Image by: Bloomsbury USA.

A Gorgeous Monument to Radioactive Decay

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:00:00 PDT

What do you do when you have a barn-sized pile of nuclear waste materials that you have to store for 100 years while it loses its toxicity? In the Netherlands, the answer was to stick it inside a giant art project: specifically, this orange building called the Habog Facility, covered in physics formulas by Einstein and Planck. Every twenty years, the building will be repainted in a lighter color to symbolize the slowly decaying radiation in the waste.

The waste in the building comes from two different nuclear reactors. Under local law, it must be stored for 100 years. William Verstraeten, the artist who designed the facility, views his piece as a commentary on metaphorphosis. Open for tours, the building also contains four symbolic paintings. According to World Nuclear News:

The theme of decay is extended to the inside of the facility, where four large pictures hang. They all feature the same local natural scene, but occur in a sequence in which base colours are removed one by one. The final two-tone image is printed on gold leaf, to introduce the idea that the waste has more value after its radioactivity has decayed.

The building won an art award earlier this year.

Some OK Reasons to Bathe in Nuclear Radiation

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:20:36 PDT

Apparently being zapped by a zillion DNA-mutating, radioactive particles from a nuclear power source isn't all bad. National Geographic reports that two major nuclear accident areas — the bomb-testing area around the Bikini Atoll and the regions around the Chernobyl meltdown — are starting to bounce back. The biosphere can survive nuclear radiation, apparently. According to Environmental Graffiti, "Edward Calabrese, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, claims that radiation may fall into a concept called hormesis: poisons that are lethal at high doses, are beneficial in low ones." Or, as another scientist put it, the life forms that don't die from radiation just grow stronger. [Environmental Graffiti]

Must See: Real Genius

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:32:57 PDT

Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale. Written by James Rocchi.

Title: Real Genius
Date: 1985

Vitals: Porky's goes dorky in this celebration of nerd culture, as a group of engineering students (including a young-and-goofy Val Kilmer) race to finish a high-power laser for their demanding Prof William Atherton ... without knowing he's going to sell it to the Pentagon as a remote assassination device. Mixing campus hi-jinks with high-tech, Real Genius has a dated — yet very real — charm.

Famous Names: Martha Coolidge (Director) Val Kilmer, William Atherton, Jon Gries (Cast)

Crunchy Goodness: 3

Life Lesson: Always check your optics.

Most Painfully Dated Moment: The end credits, a feel-good slo-motion scene set to Tears for Fears' 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World.'

Memorable Product Tie-In: Real Genius may be the best-ever ad for Jiffy Pop, for reasons that a single watching will make abundantly clear.

A Guide to the Real Genius/Caltech Connection

Must See: WarGames

Annalee Newitz — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:57:55 PDT

Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale. Written by Jason Shankel.

Title: WarGames
Date: 1983

Vitals: High school hacker's innocent attempt to steal intellectual property and get into Ally Sheedy's pants almost leads to World War III.

Famous names: Matthew Broderick Dabny Coleman Michael Madsen Ally Sheedy

Crunchy goodness: 4.5

Life lesson: Tic Tac Toe is much more interesting when you play it with nukes.

Most painfully dated moment: An IMSAI tricked out with dual 8 inch floppies!

Deadliest spoiler: The only winning move is not to play, which isn't so much a "winning move," per se, because it's not a move and you don't win. But you get my point.

WarGames at The 80's Movie Rewind - Teaser, Review, Trivia & Behind the Scenes info