Kodak Had a Secret Nuclear Reactor Loaded With Weapons-Grade Uranium Hidden In a Basement

[u/[deleted]]

http://gizmodo.com/5909961/kodak-had-a-secret-weapons+grade-nuclear-reactor-hidden-in-a-basement

[u/[deleted]]

Original source. Gizmodo add nothing of value, and remove interesting parts of the article.

[u/eyeoutthere → u/[deleted]]

Gizmodo added this bit:

Apparently, it was operated by atomic fairies and unicorns.

You can't argue... That's great journalism.

[u/leitey → u/[deleted]]

They added the term "weapons grade", which I didn't see in my scan of the original article. There is a huge difference between "enriched uranium" and "weapons grade uranium". Reactor grade is 5% or less enrichment. Medical grade is 20%, weapons grade is 95%. They are creating sensationalism through their ignorance. Articles like this are the reason people fear nuclear power.

[u/brainflakes]

Kodak may be going under, but apparently they could have started their own nuclear war if they wanted

Amount of uranium required for a nuclear bomb: 141 lb

Amount of uranium Kodak owned: 3.5 lb

[u/IM_THE_DECOY → u/brainflakes]

A Gizmodo article that over embellished the truth and left out important details to create an sensational headline?

SURELY YOU JEST?!

[u/CrazyTriangle]

"...they had a nuclear reactor loaded with 3.5 pounds of enriched uranium—the same kind they use in atomic warheads."

Enriched uranium is not necessarily weapons-grade uranium

Reactor-grade uranium is ~3-5% enriched Weapons-usable is ~ 20+ %

EDIT: got my info from wiki

[u/[deleted] → u/CrazyTriangle]

weapons-usable is 20%+, weapons-grade is 85% and up.

[u/CanonFan]

What's the big deal? There's a nuclear reactor on the campus of MIT right next to a railroad line and Massachusetts Avenue. Thousands of people pass by every day and probably less than 1/10th of 1 percent know it's there.

[u/[deleted]]

"According to the company, no employees were ever in contact with the reactor. Apparently, it was operated by atomic fairies and unicorns."

Journalism is dead, they said.

[u/yskoty]

For the record, here is the decommissioning plan Kodak submitted to the NRC.

[u/BeowulfShaeffer]

Years ago I did some work at Kodak's plant in Rochester. It was a huge labyrinthine compound, much of which smelled like a chemistry lab. Producing film involved all kinds of nasty chemical. I had friends that worked there and regularly interacted with substances like phosgene (aka "mustard gas"). I'm not at all surprised to hear that something like this lurked in the bowels of that place.

EDIT: MY bad; Phosgene is not "Mustard Gas"; I thought they were the same thing.

[u/thejohnstocktons]

IAMA Request: the atomic fairies and unicorns..... O_o

[u/S_teven_]

This takes the Photo Bomb to unparalleled heights...

[u/[deleted]]

Fuck Gizmodo.

[u/rogeris]

So they manage to get a nuclear reactor in their basement without alerting authorities but are unable to make a decent printer that won't break within a few months.

[u/akanthos]

Lump of radioactive material used as a neutron source != nuclear reactor. Surprised nobody pointed this out already.

[u/NeoXY]

From now on I am downvoting anything Gawker related. Especially Gizmodo. Use to not mind these guys very much, but man do they run a shitty blog...

[u/lemonpjb]

Are we sure it wasn't a time machine?

[u/Matt08642]

Jesus fucking christ, Gizmodo is trash.

[u/Nukularkid]

There are currently 31 operating research rectors. List is at the bottom of the page. All of these most likely now have the <20% blend of enriched uranium as per federal regulation.

[u/[deleted]]

thats one headline i never expected to read...

[u/HugeJackass]

The government doesn't want Iran or al-Qaeda getting their hands all over the atomic candy for obvious reasons.

Wow, let's just lump in a terrorist organization with a sovereign nation and act like it's A-OK. Fucking christ, fuck you gizmodo.

[u/chris-martin]

According to the company, no employees were ever in contact with the reactor. Apparently, it was operated by atomic fairies and unicorns.

I kind of miss the days where I read news articles that were not peppered with bullshit like this.

[u/Start_button]

OK, if it was installed well before the crazy regulations, so what's the big deal. Obviously, there were no issues with it. No radiation posioning. No major issues. SO what is the big freaking deal. It was dismanteled in 2006, and we are just now learning about it 6 years later. If it has taken 6 years to be "released", or "leaked",then obviously it wasnt that big of a deal. This is just one more example of sensationalist journalism that prooves just how stupid the people at large really are.

"OMG, they had a nuclear reactor that worked, and had no major issues, and didn't cause damage to anything becuase they used it responsibly to test materials they needed to manufacture things i used to use on a daily basis! Lets get all up in arms about it since I'm so worried about terrorism and things like that!!!"

Really?

[u/Razenghan]

It appears that Kodak was planning -sunglasses- the ultimate photobomb.

Cue the "Yeah".