slgwv's photos with the keyword: nuclear

Cooling tower for the never-finished Satsop nuclear power plant, near Elma, Washington state. This was one of 5 nuclear plants under construction by what was then the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS--yes, "whoops!") in the late 70s-early 80s. (The name was later changed to Northwest Energy.) Gross mismanagement, huge cost overruns, and lower than expected electricity demand led to abandonment of 4 of the reactors in the early 80s, and in turn to what was then the largest municipal bond default in US history. (So much for a "widows and orphans" investment!) See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Northwest Obviously, the unfinished cooling tower was not demolished. It remains as a surreal centerpiece in an industrial park--which also rents the area out as a movie set! Presumably that helps with maintenance costs.

An underground nuclear test ("event") that unexpectedly vented to the surface in 1970. This was a Big Deal, because public attitudes toward matters nuclear were undergoing a sea change at that time. Display at the Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada.

On the grounds of the Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Priscilla, 24 Jun 1957, 40 kilotons yield. Another in the Operation Plumbbob series. However, although this picture was identified as Priscilla by the AEC, it actually looks to be Grable. Apparently the Priscilla pictures have been misidentified for years--see www.radiochemistry.org/history/nuke_tests/plumbbob/index.... Scanned from an official AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) photo that had been cleared for public release, and so is in the public domain. As with Hood, I would have seen this as a small child, watching with my mom and kid sister from the Spring Mountains about 30 miles away. Of course, you can't watch the initial detonation without heavy-duty eye protection, but you can certainly watch the fireball afterward.

Hood, 5 July 1957, 74 kilotons yield. Part of Operation Plumbbob, a series of nuclear tests in mid-1957. This was the largest device (as they were called) set off aboveground at the Nevada Test Site. It was a thermonuclear device (i.e., a hydrogen bomb), despite the fact that the AEC denied for many years that thermonuclear devices had been set off aboveground in the US. I saw this one as a small child, watching from off Lee Canyon in the Spring Mountains about 30 miles away. Scanned from an official AEC (Atomic Energy Commission--now absorbed into the US Dept. of Energy) photo that had been cleared for public release, and so is in the public domain. A little judicious Photoshopping has repaired some cracks in the original emulsion.