I've got criticality safety on the horn, and they say there's no such thing as "too much" uranium glass. Fill your boots.

One like one random DOE/NNSA story 🤷‍♂️⚛️

Mike Black@mikeblack114.bsky.social · 3d ago

One like one random AF story

Saw a 2027 Subaru Outback in the wild. Very ugly

Cool! "The team focused on the design of the reactor and components, using zirconium hydride moderator and heat pipe cooling."

Gerrit Bruhaug@gbruhaug.bsky.social · 5d ago

So aside from private companies getting little reactors, LANL also did (yet another) and before the rest! I don’t know why it took so long for a public statement, but one is finally out. www.lanl.gov/media/news/0...

I find it really interesting that LANL is the only DOE lab to make their own new reactors this century (Kilopower and Zia) especially since it’s not the main goal of the lab and these projects are effectively larks. Not sure what’s going on at INL, but they need to get it together!

LANL developed a microreactor and took it critical -- in April! www.lanl.gov/media/news/0...

ZiaCore microreactor successfully achieves criticality | LANL

Los Alamos' ZiaCore microreactor achieved zero-power criticality, validating an advanced reactor design and supporting future low-enriched nuclear technologies.

lanl.gov

Looking at my growing pile of tasks that really need to get done "hmm but what if I lock on one of my nice-to-have tasks instead?"

DOE works with other countries on nuclear waste cleanup but is missing opportunities to strategically engage with them to find approaches that reduce both costs and risks to workers and the public. www.gao.gov/products/gao...

U.S. GAO - Nuclear Waste Cleanup: DOE Is Missing Opportunities to Apply Lessons from Other Countries That Could Reduce Risks and Costs

Nuclear waste cleanup can be costly, risky, and time consuming. The Department of Energy's cleanup efforts in the U.S. will cost over $640 billion and...

gao.gov

IAEA Inspector: Do you know why I pulled you over? Anna: … IAEA Inspector: Get out of the car and open the trunk.

Anna Biela@nuclearanna.bsky.social · last wk.

Did you know: the Hyundai Elantra is perfectly sized to fit one (1) quarter height nuclear fuel assembly in its trunk?

Did you know: the Hyundai Elantra is perfectly sized to fit one (1) quarter height nuclear fuel assembly in its trunk?

sometimes i think about the nutty putty cave a little too intensely and start to panic just a little bit

If you could flip a coin and heads made giraffes speak French and tails made penguins capable of doing nuclear physics but if you didn’t flip the coin, you’d get a free six piece chicken nugget meal from McDonalds, wbat would you do? What then, huh? Think carefully.

UW–Madison will receive 5 Phase I Genesis Mission awards from the Department of Energy addressing urgent energy, scientific, and engineering challenges with AI and advanced computing. @uwmadison.bsky.social earned more awards than any other public university in the US. news.wisc.edu/5-projects-a...

5 projects at UW–Madison aimed at transforming science and energy with AI receive DOE Genesis Mission funding

The projects, spanning fusion to critical minerals, are among 278 funded awards to national labs, companies, universities and non-profits in order to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, scientific dis...

news.wisc.edu

This spring I'm reviving Physics 306: Nuclear Physics and Technology. Everything from shell models to reactor neutronics. Last time (2021) we talked about AP1000s, ESBWRs, and doomed SMR startups. Times have changed! Would love advice about how to teach the latest fusion and SMR R&D. #nukesky ⚛️🎢

Thinking of everyone in the upper Midwest today. When I moved to the southwest I did a lot of fire prep-- go bag, air purifiers with extra filters ready to go, etc. But even after years in NM, the worst air quality I've ever experienced was back in Wisconsin, during a smoke plume similar to this one

Curing your Clown-Like Car Habit www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/22/c...

Gravel Influencer@gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 3w ago

A whole lot of people with otherwise progressive views suddenly get real mad when you talk about doing anything at all to address the scourge of speeding drivers killing people

every gardener i follow is going absolutely hogwild flexing that they eat lettuce from behind their house. i've never seen gardeners act like this in my life. this is our super bowl. this is our olympics. gold medal in shitting normally

Physicist Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber was born #OTD in 1911. In 1942 she discovered that spontaneous fission is associated with the emission of neutrons and in 1948 she identified beta rays as atomic electrons. 🧪 ⚛️ 👩‍🔬 Image: Brookhaven National Lab

I just got a credit report notification that my dormant REI credit card became active again. This means that I somehow managed to go SIX MONTHS without buying anything at REI, please clap! Major personal achievement

Got a really good deal on a pair of jeans - too good I guess, because Levi cancelled my order several days later despite there being stock available. At the current, higher price of course

A while ago, I talked with the host of @marketplace.org’s climate podcast How We Survive about cloning woolly mammoths. They just aired a snippet of the show on Marketplace tonight (scroll to “Latest Episode;” the segment starts at 7:18): www.marketplace.org/shows/market...

Marketplace

marketplace.org

I have a new #nukesky business plan. Open a microbrewery and name all the beers after underground tests. Because if VOODOO RANGER and DOGFISH HEAD get to be IPA names, so can MISSION CYBER and DISKO ELM

Onkalo and WIPP mentioned

Randall Munroe@xkcd.com · last mo.

Holes xkcd.com/3266/

The nuclear physicist Harriet Brooks, who was probably the first person to notice the recoil of an atomic nucleus due to emissions during nuclear decay, was born #OTD in 1876. 🧪 ⚛️ 👩‍🔬 Credit: Notman Archives/Musée McCord

Community meeting about the McCauley Springs Fire featured questions/requests from the public that were almost exclusively to close the national forest (Stage III restrictions), up from the Stage I restrictions now that restrict all fires

Wildfire season in the southwest

Mixmoji 🤖@mixmoji.pixigeko.com · last mo.

😩 + 🔥

Oceans are now battlefields

CNBC Make It@cnbcmakeit.cnbc.com · 2mo ago

Add these 4 words to your vocabulary right now, experts say: They can make you more influential at work