Geiger Counter prices will drop as they become more popular, leading to more data points, citizen science, and most importantly, preparation for another crisis (which will hopefully never occur). Contribute to the Safecast project on March 11th and your donation will be matched 200%.
I will spare you the obligatory “nuclear family Christmas” joke. From British artist Nikki Pugh.
But this video of Penn State’s Breazeale nuclear reactor “pulsing” is the first time I’ve ever seen any moving pictures of the phenomenon, which are somehow way more impressive. And since this is a phenomenon few of us will ever have an opportunity to witness first-hand, the 15 seconds it takes to watch the video definitely count as time well spent in my book. Note how the blue glow persists for some time after the reactor itself has been shut off.
Interesting article over on Wired about Kirk Sorensen and the community served by his Energy From Thorium blog. To hear these people tell it, Thorium fission in fluid fuel reactors offers an idyllic vision of a boundless-energy-from-the-atom type future no one has really believed in since the early 50s. Thorium, reportedly, is abundant, safe, highly efficient as a nuclear fuel, and produces waste that is radioactive only for a few hundred years instead of tens of thousands. Also, the waste products from the Thorium cycle cannot be reprocessed to make bombs, which is the sole reason why it was not chosen as the basis for American nuclear energy technologies back in the 50s.
