Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades • Hacker News Board

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#41

Post by SonOfKyuss » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

MassiveQuasar wrote: post #37

SonOfKyuss wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The activists of the 60s-90s were witnesses to the nuclear bombing of Japan, domestic nuclear accidents, as well as a nuclear arms race that threatened to wipe out all of humanity. It is unfortunate that we threw the baby out with the bathwater when it came to nuclear power generation, but the people who had issues with nuclear in that era did have good reasons to be afraid.

Were they good reasons or did they just fell victim to their feelings? Not creating nuclear power plants because you're afraid of some bombs is good reasoning? What about the millions of deaths to fossil fuels every year? Are they better than the nuclear accidents we had? I don't think good reasoning is why they felt that nuclear power was bad.

How about understandable reasons then?

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#42

Post by Workaccount2 » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 2:47 PM UTC

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #36

cogman10 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climate activists backed and propagandized by the fossil fuel industry and the KGB. And now that there are a number of barriers to creating new nuclear, the propaganda has flipped with fossil fuel companies supporting nuclear because they know it'll be decades before anything real can happen. I have nothing against nuclear and if it can be built I'm for it. But at the moment, solar + battery is quick to deploy and ab…

> But at the moment, solar + battery is quick to deploy and about as cheap as you can get. The actual equation is solar + battery + gas fired power plant. That’s the dirty secret behind intermittent power sources and why fossil fuel companies are all investing in solar and wind. Batteries are simply not enough to face the long term intermittence. It’s purely an intra-day solution at the moment and nobody knows how to…

The actual actual problem is energy per acre of land per year.

Solar is king in places like west Texas and Nevada. Massive sunny flat sprawling landscapes where the land is practically free.

It's a different story in places like Massachusetts or New York, where land is expensive and the sun is mildly sunny.

Gas becomes much more competitive because you only need 5 acres instead of 500, and the energy is 24/7.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#43

Post by TomMasz » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 2:49 PM UTC

Kodak did a lot of government work over the years. When the news came out, no one panicked. Kodak was the biggest employer in the region and had a lot of local goodwill, we trusted them to take care of things.

Needless to say, that is no longer the case.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#44

Post by kspacewalk2 » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #21

jandrewrogers wrote: post #17

When I studied chemistry at university, only a handful of select students were introduced to the nuclear science lab in the basement. It had a lot of spicy isotopes, neutron sources, etc. Even as a chemistry student with free run of the place for years I had no idea it was in the building until the department head pulled a few of us aside. The reason for the informal secrecy, as it was explained to me, is that every…

Same thing with animal testing. You don't get to know where the monkey labs are but the alternative is we test on poor people? learn to keep secrets, people.

You also don't want the very stupidest of your politicians to catch wind of it [0]. None of these puppy people would refuse stroke treatment on the same ethical grounds, naturally.

[0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ford-warning-scientist...

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#45

Post by xp84 » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

dgacmu wrote: post #35

simianparrot wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok but what about when it’s night time or cloudy?

Solar + battery + wind actually do pretty well. There's a bit of a de-correlation between solar and wind that makes the mix more resilient than either alone. We can't do 100% in most places yet, but it's pretty straightforward to move to a much higher percentage of them in our grid mix than we have now, California possibly excepting. (But even in California you see battery starting to extend how much we can do with s…

California has energy costs more than double most other states so it’s probably not the best argument for “it’s so easy to go mostly renewable.” A lot of things are feasible if you’re willing to [force everyone in the state to] spend 2x. Whatever California is trying to do in the past 20 years has been extraordinarily regressive.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#46

Post by speed_spread » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 3:02 PM UTC

billy99k wrote: post #20

jandrewrogers wrote: post #17

When I studied chemistry at university, only a handful of select students were introduced to the nuclear science lab in the basement. It had a lot of spicy isotopes, neutron sources, etc. Even as a chemistry student with free run of the place for years I had no idea it was in the building until the department head pulled a few of us aside. The reason for the informal secrecy, as it was explained to me, is that every…

These public freak outs is also why we don't have abundant nuclear energy. The climate activists of the 60s-90s stopped us from building more reactors, one of the cleanest sources of energy ever known.

When you read about how incidents and accidents at research and commercial nuclear facilities have been denied, covered up, downplayed and fumbled sometimes for years and years you realize the problem is not nuclear technology but the people who manage it. Nuclear technology may have progressed but our ability to handle it ethically surely hasn't.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#47

Post by amelius » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 3:02 PM UTC

jandrewrogers wrote: post #17

When I studied chemistry at university, only a handful of select students were introduced to the nuclear science lab in the basement. It had a lot of spicy isotopes, neutron sources, etc. Even as a chemistry student with free run of the place for years I had no idea it was in the building until the department head pulled a few of us aside. The reason for the informal secrecy, as it was explained to me, is that every…

Yes, however I suppose it is fuel for conspiracy theories.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#48

Post by galangalalgol » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 3:03 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #40

cogman10 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climate activists backed and propagandized by the fossil fuel industry and the KGB. And now that there are a number of barriers to creating new nuclear, the propaganda has flipped with fossil fuel companies supporting nuclear because they know it'll be decades before anything real can happen. I have nothing against nuclear and if it can be built I'm for it. But at the moment, solar + battery is quick to deploy and ab…

> Climate activists backed and propagandized by the fossil fuel industry and the KGB Who are the current generation of climate activists backed and propagandized by?

I don't know about activists, vut the US green party was influenced by russia for years. There is evidence of influence with Jill Stein for instance. But if you pick a political organization anywhere in the world that doesn't show signs of Russian influence, that would almost be more suspicious.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#49

Post by amanaplanacanal » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 3:03 PM UTC

billy99k wrote: post #20

jandrewrogers wrote: post #17

When I studied chemistry at university, only a handful of select students were introduced to the nuclear science lab in the basement. It had a lot of spicy isotopes, neutron sources, etc. Even as a chemistry student with free run of the place for years I had no idea it was in the building until the department head pulled a few of us aside. The reason for the informal secrecy, as it was explained to me, is that every…

These public freak outs is also why we don't have abundant nuclear energy. The climate activists of the 60s-90s stopped us from building more reactors, one of the cleanest sources of energy ever known.

Almost nobody knew or cared about the coming global warming in the 60s-90s.

Re: Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades

#50

Post by throwup238 » Sat, Nov 22, 2025, 3:11 PM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #45

dgacmu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar + battery + wind actually do pretty well. There's a bit of a de-correlation between solar and wind that makes the mix more resilient than either alone. We can't do 100% in most places yet, but it's pretty straightforward to move to a much higher percentage of them in our grid mix than we have now, California possibly excepting. (But even in California you see battery starting to extend how much we can do with s…

California has energy costs more than double most other states so it’s probably not the best argument for “it’s so easy to go mostly renewable.” A lot of things are feasible if you’re willing to [force everyone in the state to] spend 2x. Whatever California is trying to do in the past 20 years has been extraordinarily regressive.

Our energy costs are due to the distribution network and the massive amount of deferred maintenance on it that has come due in the last decade, accelerated by the Camp fire court case. There was a two year period a few years ago where power went out at least once a week while SDGE replaced every power pole in the rural east county by flying them in on helicopters. That's largely what we're paying for.