News of the Weird

44 thoughts on “News of the Weird”

1. Although it was suspicious when the CEO kept tenting his fingers and cackling.Report

2. Kodak > IranReport

   1. If Kodak has weapons-grade Uranium, maybe Sony has tanks after all!Report

3. This bring to mind the famous story of the Radioactive Boy ScoutReport

   1. great book.Report

4. Also, it seems somewhat apropos, since uranium was first discovered to be radioactive (by Henri Becquerel, in 1986) when photographic plates stored nearby to it became fogged.Report

   1. 1896, of course.Report

5. I find this thought horrifying, yet fitting. Horrifying, insofar as my exposure (get it?) to Kodak has suggested that they should not be trusted with such a thing. Fitting, because I have often said they have the most toxic (get it?) business culture of any company I have worked with a company doing business with.

   (Vegas attendees can get the whole story, if anyone remembers to ask.)Report

   1. I think we got the picture.Report

      1. I’d like him to develop it further.Report

         1. Focus, damn it!Report

            1. I shutter to think what could have happened.Report

6. I would assume such a thing would be quite valuable. Why not sell it to avoid bankruptcy?Report

7. High-energy, high-flux radiation sources are also useful for simulating the space environment. This can be useful if you produce large amounts of film for spy satellites.Report

   1. There is a distinction between enriched uranium and weapons-grade (highly enriched) uranium. I was ready to pooh-pooh the story as having confused the two, but its source specifically says “highly-enriched”.Report

      1. It uses the terms interchangeably though, and I’m still not sure if the CFX actually needs that much U-235 to get the SCM required. (I mean, it was technically not a ‘reactor’ either, more of an atomic pile)Report

         1. Nevermind, didn’t read Mr. Akimoto’s below.Report

      2. Yeah, this is 90someodd percent U-235.

         Still not enough for critical mass, though.Report

         1. Well, almost any amount of U-235 can be a critical mass if you have the right geometry and density. (and low enough poisons etc). But, seriously, thanks for the clarificationReport

      3. Note that in Cold War terms, the “space environment” may include large doses of high-energy neutrons produced by Soviet counterspace warheads.Report

8. Clearly, this is because both Argus and Nikon were known to have already possessed weapons grade uranium. Detente as a nuclear deterrent is a proven strategy to prevent any one camera manufacturer from using the weapons grade uranium.Report

   1. You’re the CEO of Kodak, which has been making giant advances in photography ever since the 19th century You’re in receivership, and over there these fishing kids are getting a billion dollars for putting cute borders around snapshots. Tell me you wouldn’t have been tempted.Report

9. I was part of a research project on the civilian uses of HEU last year. Essentially the likelihood is that the HEU was used for simulation purposes like space.

   The use of HEU for this sort of application was pretty popular in the 60s and 70s and governments have been a bit slow to phase this stuff out.

   Also 3.5lbs isn’t really significant.Report

   1. That or it was a critical assembly. (That’s pretty likely. The term “reactor” is a bit imprecise.)Report

      1. Dug up a bit on their decomissioning plan for the facility:

         EKC Research Facility, Building 82 was established in 1966 to provide a dedicated
         research and development facility for conducting chemical and radiological analyses, doing
         small quantity bench and batch scale research and development studies on manufacturing
         processes, and to investigate new chemicals of interest to the Corporation’s various
         operating divisions. In this facility, EKC conducted R&D work utilizing the CFX to
         investigate various chemical irradiations. Work with enriched uranium fuel plates in the
         CFX required that EKC have a Special Nuclear Materials license.

         Report

         1. From what I can tell the facility was actually decommissioned in 2006, and the sensitive materials were moved to holding facilities operated by DoE…essentially the people who are making a fuss about this don’t know wtf they’re talking about…again.Report

            1. bubububb NOOOOOOOKYULERRRRRReport

10. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/assets/pdf/A2189207511.pdf

    Is the decommissioning plan, in case anyone’s interested in reading it.Report

11. In short: Stupidly sensationalistic headline. The HEU isn’t there anymore, it’s 1/5th of a critical mass required to set off anything dangerous and they had a DOE and state of New York license for this stuff.Report

    1. Gizmodo? Stupidly sensationalistic headline?

       The deuce you say!Report

       1. The world needs better science reporters.Report

          1. I’ve never said that, ever, myself…Report

12. I thought everyone had one of those in their basement… huh.Report

13. MIT has one right in the heart of Boston/Cambridge.

    Honestly, I’m not all that surprised: (1) A lot of Japanese research output is corporate. (2) We’re talking about the Gawker Media Network here, although I’ve been digging their Girls summaries and more or less everything written by a certain former dictator of Zaire.Report

    1. Hell, little Reed College has one in the middle of Portland.Report

       1. Great to hear! Next thing you’ll tell me Bard has one too, and the students drop acid and have orgies on top of the primary containment vessel.Report

    2. Quite few universities had small research reactors.Report

       1. Most university research reactors and critical assemblies have been converted to LEU fuel or decommissioned.

          There’s actually been some substantial progress on this in the past few years particularly from GTRI and RERTR.

          …really do wish I didn’t know so much about this subject, brings back bad memories.Report

       2. Berkeley did when I went there, but it was decommissioned when the city went “nuclear-free”. Stupid PC nonsense..Report

          1. For the most part, these things aren’t all that useful anymore. In fact really powerful computers with good models are probably a more cost effective replacement.

             That isn’t to say that saying you have a nuclear reactor isn’t cool.Report

             1. Nobody ever became a superhero from an accidental dose of supercomputing.Report

                1. Oracle.Report

             2. It’s true that the DOE is basically the biggest supercomputer customer in the world, followed by the NSA.Report

14. you should see what they’ve got under DC.

    you all remember when we almost lost Detroit?Report

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