At the end of WW2, you could write to the Atomic Energy Commission and they would send you free samples of radio active material.
They also published plans for a backyard "Atomic pile", basically a deep hole in the ground with a bunch of radio active gunk in the bottom that you could lower a few loops of pipe into to generate steam for heating or driving a generator. I think they suggested a concrete lid over it.
By the late 1950s, they were quietly shutting down and cleaning up some of these haz mat sites they helped create. I believe it involved comdemning the whole block, mitigating it, demolishing houses and leaving it fenced for a few decades. They did an amazing job of keeping it hushed up.
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timeasmymeasure
Backyard nukes
Date: 2022-01-05 06:52 pm (UTC)They also published plans for a backyard "Atomic pile",
basically a deep hole in the ground with a bunch of radio active gunk in the bottom that you could
lower a few loops of pipe into to generate steam for heating or driving a generator.
I think they suggested a concrete lid over it.
By the late 1950s, they were quietly shutting down and cleaning up some of these haz mat sites they helped create.
I believe it involved comdemning the whole block, mitigating it, demolishing houses and leaving it
fenced for a few decades.
They did an amazing job of keeping it hushed up.