I'd like to see a well reasoned plan to install small modular nuclear power at peoples houses that prevents the mentally ill, criminally reckless or terrorist minded people from cracking them open and obtaining access to the isotopes.

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pitched 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There isn’t much need to extract isotopes if you have an actual working reactor, is there? Just use that as-is to cause whatever damage.

	▲	walrus01 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		From a strictly red team threat analysis perspective, if you have an extremely safe working reactor that can't be made to melt down, no, the reactor can't be used to hurt much that is in the same location as the reactor. If you are able to get the isotopes out and start spreading them around or making a dirty bomb type thing (where the explosion just serves the purpose of throwing the isotopes around), that could be pretty catastrophic.

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cobbzilla 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

have you never visited a rural neighborhood? or an affluent neighborhood?

there are still many neighborhoods where people leave their doors unlocked because it is actually that safe. not every location is rife with criminal activity, and many are well protected.

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walrus01 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Serious question, do you actually think that if you distribute millions of small nuclear reactors to homeowners geographically spread out around all of North America, 0.000% of them will be dangerously mentally ill, criminally reckless or inclined to terrorist like activity? Based on the frequency and number of mass shooter type incidents, (or like, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians) this would be a very naive view.

It doesn't require a criminally minded 3rd party coming onto someone's "safe" property to do something horrible with a sawzall and/or oxy-acetylene cutting torch.

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cobbzilla 7 hours ago | parent [-]

have you never heard of tamper-proof containers? mess with it, it’s useless and you go to jail for a long time?

Plus, they’re ubiquitous, you don’t know who has one, max damage is minimal even worst case — go fish!

	▲	cobbzilla 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		We have microwave ovens. They’re pretty safe. Imagine something as safe as that. We can do it. But I can’t disagree that it’s more exciting to imagine terror dreams.
	▲	walrus01 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That's a very optimistic view of humanity that I can't say I share. If you give a sufficiently motivated person enough isolation and time, they can cut into just about anything. And possibly deal with cleaning up the results of any internal tamperproof countermeasures. In a world that contains people like the Las Vegas mass shooter or those who conducted the 2015 attacks in Paris, handing out isotopes to the ordinary person seems like a recipe for disaster. We live in a world where multiple people are killed every year by tipping vending machines over onto themselves and you propose to make nuclear reactors a mass market consumer good that goes in everyone's garage?

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yehoshuapw 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

While that is true, if there is something worthwhile enough in a far and safe location - it won't stay that way

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cobbzilla 7 hours ago | parent [-]

It’s everywhere. It’s in the shed in your backyard. Nobody knows it’s there. Lots of people have them. It’s an appliance.

The worst thing an evildoer can do is blow up your own house and the few around it. and no one does that because you go to jail forever.

The worst thing you can do is let it melt down, which means it quietly shuts itself down.

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walrus01 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The worst thing an evildoer can do is blow up your own house and the few around it.

No, they can take the isotopes out and dump it into your local water supply. Or if they're suicidal and the isotopes have been encapsulated in some sort of tamperproof system, grid the whole thing down to granulated powder using less than $20,000 of power tools (disregarding their own health and the entire nearby area, of course) and then dump it into the local water supply.

	▲	fragmede 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If someone evil has access to the water supply, is radioactive material the worst they could do? that'll, what, give some people cancer which is really bad but it'll take a while to get them. If people wanted to be shitheads, they could already dump arsenic or LSD into the water supply, or any number of others things. that are already available to them right now! Have you personally tested your taps chlorine or flouride or lead levels recently?

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TheOtherHobbes 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You're seriously proposing that a country with regular mass-shootings should give everyone a device that can cause a radioactive meltdown or a small explosion?

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fragmede 7 hours ago | parent [-]

We already let people have cars and those things are crazy dangerous! No one should be allowed anything, ever, until we bubble wrap everything in the world to be perfectly safe!

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walrus01 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Well, we already have strict background checks, licensing and regulations for a scenario such as if a person wants start a home based business manufacturing and storing C4, Semtex or similar at their rural property. If the idea is to start handing out nuclear reactors for peoples' houses, the possible damage that could be done is far greater. No matter how well packaged it is or designed to be consumer friendly.

	▲	an hour ago \| parent [-]
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