“They’re like pins at the end of a bowling alley[.]” The mostly defunct Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts is one of many sites with improperly stored nuclear waste. The highly radioactive waste is stored in casks half an inch thick and without monitoring devices. It’s incredibly dangerous, especially with how little security the casks are afforded. They’re stockpiled in the open air, with only chainlink fencing keeping them from the general public. If they explode—or if they are deliberately targeted—it would spell disaster for Massachusetts. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here
Merv
March 25, 2023
