Top all-time · #6095
Carl Willis
Personal blog · carlwillis.wordpress.comsciencehistory
Carl Willis writes Special Nuclear Material, a personal blog at carlwillis.wordpress.com about science and history. Since 2009, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 16 times, most often “Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Carl Willis's blog for its nuclear and radiation content: a Soviet smoke-detector plutonium analysis, DIY uranium chemistry guides, and photos from reactor and Chernobyl visits.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A Carl Willis Joint.
Most-linked posts?
- Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-02-10
- /2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-05-16
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-11-09
- Uranium Chemistry (2008)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-09-25
What Hacker News says?
The plutonium sample is reported to be something similar to this, https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/analysis-of-sovi... ( "Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium " (2017))
Comment linking /2017/02/07/analysis-of-soviet-smoke-detector-plutonium/
on “Australian who ordered radioactive materials walks away from court”Submitted Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium as a story · 169 points
HN discussionHere's another interesting "radiation enthusiast", who visits nuclear sites and collects radioactive memorabilia. He actually works as a nuclear engineer. http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/ Highlights include Chernobyl trips, a trip to "Soviet Ground Zero", and a how-to for DIY uranium chemistry.
Comment linking /
on “The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples”Submitted A Nuclear Jockstrap as a story · 83 points
HN discussionThe first image is from a blog with lots of information and high-resolution photos of old reactors, including Chernobyl: https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/
Comment linking /
on “Photos of Soviet control rooms”Submitted Uranium Chemistry (2008) as a story · 57 points
HN discussionIf you are really determined, you can refine it yourself. http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry...
Comment linking /2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry/
on “In 1951 there was a children's U-238 Atomic Energy Lab playset for $50”Submitted Radioactive Pottery and Glassware (2010) as a story · 15 points
HN discussion"Even with nuclear weapons, if you rewind the tape you notice that it turned out that in order to make a nuclear weapon you had to have these very rare raw materials like highly enriched uranium or plutonium, which are very difficult to get [a]. But suppose it had turned out that there was some technological technique that allowed you to make a nuclear weapon by baking sand in a microwave oven or something like that…
Comment linking /2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry/
on “We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction”Submitted Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAccording to the Luciteria listing linked by other commenters, this was a microscopic sample of plutonium, as plutonium oxide, enclosed as part of an old Soviet smoke detector. It's like the radioactive americium source used in modern smoke detectors but made with an element one atomic number lower. A plutonium bomb core requires a mass of several kilograms. This sample was 35 nanograms, or about 11 orders of magnit…
Comment linking /2017/02/07/analysis-of-soviet-smoke-detector-plutonium/
on “'Naive' science fan faces jail for plutonium import”Submitted Herb Anderson's “Live Block” of the Chicago Pile as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI'll be eating my hat, then; this thing is indeed real, https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/analysis-of-sovi... ( "Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium" (2017)) (and HN thread, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13616574 ) That analysis says these contained about 40 μCi of Pu-239, or 0.7 mg.
Comment linking /2017/02/07/analysis-of-soviet-smoke-detector-plutonium/
on “'Naive' science fan faces jail for plutonium import”FYI, Taylor's self described "best nuclear friend" (1) is a fellow named Carl Willis who has an interesting, albeit infrequently updated, blog called "special nuclear material" here: http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/ (1) http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/boy-who-played...
Comment linking /
on “The Nuclear Scientist Who Skipped College”DIY home radiochemistry from some who actually seems to know what they are doing (a nuclear engineering grad student): http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry...
Comment linking /2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry/
on “The radioactive boy scout: the teenager who attempted to build a breeder reactor”- RK · 2014-09-25
If you're interested in the chemistry of Uranium, here's a do-it-yourself guide. The uranyl compounds are what fluoresce: https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/uranium-chemistr...
Comment linking /2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry/
on “People Who Collect Radioactive Glass”
