For today's edition of the NPR News program "Day to Day," I filed a report on the brouhaha brewing in Alaska over a nuclear particle accelerator destined for a science enthusiast's home.
Civil engineer and nuclear technician Albert Swank wants to build a circular particle accelerator, or cyclotron, in his garage in a well-manicured residential area adjacent to downtown Anchorage, Alaska.
But some of his neighbors aren't too comfortable with the idea, and they've convinced the city assembly to propose a law specifically forbidding the cyclotrons in residential areas.
Swank wants to rebuild a cyclotron being decommissioned at Johns Hopkins University to create radioactive isotopes for Alaska hospitals. The isotopes are used to treat cancer and are also used in imaging machines.
Link, archived audio online after 12PM PT/3PM ET.
Here's a report I filed for Wired News, and here's a related /. thread
