Tag: meltdown

Do You Remember the Y2K Bug?

harrymcc writes: In the late 1990s, lots of people were concerned that the Y2K bug could lead to power outages, financial collapse, riots, and worse when the clock rolled over to January 1, 2000. Hundreds of books about the problem and suggestions on how to respond (quit your job, move to the country, stockpile food) not only capitalized on this fear…

‘The Next Nuclear Plants Will Be Small, Svelte, and Safer’

“A new generation of reactors will start producing power in the next few years,” writes Wired, addingi that “They’re comparatively tiny — and may be key to hitting our climate goals.” For the last 20 years, the future of nuclear power has stood in a high bay laboratory tucked away on the Oregon State University campus in the western part of…

Windows and Linux Get Options To Disable Intel TSX To Prevent Zombieload v2 Attacks

Both Microsoft and the Linux kernel teams have added ways to disable support for Intel Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX). From a report: TSX is the Intel technology that opens the company’s CPUs to attacks via the Zombieload v2 vulnerability. Zombieload v2 is the codename of a vulnerability that allows malware or a malicious threat actor to extract information processed inside a…

NASA Wants To Send Nuclear Rockets To the Moon and Mars

NASA engineers want to create a rocket engine powered by nuclear fusion. “A nuclear rocket engine would be twice as efficient as the chemical engines powering rockets today,” reports Wired. “But despite their conceptual simplicity, small-scale fission reactors are challenging to build and risky to operate because they produce toxic waste. Space travel is dangerous enough without having to worry about…

A Major Cyber Attack Could Be Just As Deadly As Nuclear Weapons

“As someone who studies cybersecurity and information warfare, I’m concerned that a cyberattack with widespread impact, an intrusion in one area that spreads to others or a combination of lots of smaller attacks, could cause significant damage, including mass injury and death rivaling the death toll of a nuclear weapon,” warns an assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University:…

Chernobyl and Why Some TV Shows Should Be Unbingeable

An anonymous reader shares a column [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled]: Few television shows in recent years have been as compelling, yet as difficult to watch, as Chernobyl. The story of the hours and days following the 1986 nuclear reactor meltdown, and the many awful ways that radiation can kill, was expertly told. But it was the antithesis of…

Chernobyl and The Terror docu-dramas expose horror’s many faces

Stories of Chernobyl’s nuclear meltdown and the doomed Franklin hunt for a North-West Passage terrify for very different reasons, says Chelsea Whyte in her latest column Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232350-700-chernobyl-and-the-terror-docu-dramas-expose-horrors-many-faces/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Should the UK Re-Open An Old, Cracked Nuclear Reactor?

“Nuclear experts have warned against re-opening a 43-year-old Scottish nuclear reactor riddled with cracks over fears of a meltdown,” writes the Daily Mirror. An anonymous reader quotes their report: Hunterston B nuclear power plant was shut down last year after it was found that Reactor 3 had almost 400 cracks in it — exceeding the operational limit. EDF, which own the…