Category Archives: Nuke geekery

Plutonium, fun for the whole family!

Posted on October 11, 2012 by

A few weeks ago on Twitter, a Japanese guy named Yukari Takasugi pinged me (and a lot of other journalists) with an incredible video. Without another word of comment, I give you Pluto-kun of plutonium:

Posted in Nuke geekery, Science (sortta) | 4 Comments

Time for a tour of Fukushima’s Unit 4

Posted on August 31, 2012 by

I’ve made a little photo slideshow of the work that’s gone on at Fukushima’s unit 4 reactor for the past several months. For obscure web reasons, it has to be hosted on tumblr. Click on the photo below to have … Continue reading →

Posted in Nuke geekery | 1 Comment

Why is Curiosity’s secret a secret? (Answer: it isn’t.)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by

Today I have a piece on Slate entitled “Curiosity’s dirty little secret” about the rover’s nuclear power supply. The piece traces the plutonium-238 it uses back to the US and Soviet nuclear weapons complexes and discusses the environmental mess left … Continue reading →

Posted in Nuke geekery | 2 Comments

The Dark Knight Rises—nuclear effects

Posted on July 30, 2012 by

Disclaimer: this contains spoilers, albeit predictable ones. It’s also one of those whiny, “why isn’t the movie more realistic?” geek things. If that’s going to annoy you, stop reading now. We’ve all got our todestrieb to deal with. The guy … Continue reading →

Posted in Nuke geekery, The Freak's Shame | 11 Comments