5 ms·

Well they still might build it I imagine. Back in the 1960s BYU had a working nuclear reactor right on campus which produced a few watts of energy. The undergr

Well they still might build it I imagine. Back in the 1960s BYU had a working nuclear reactor right on campus which produced a few watts of energy. The underground facility was standing at least as recently as the early 1990s.

themodelplumber 4y ago
I remember hearing about that, and related rumors from coworkers at BYU. They'd point out the guesstimated location as we drove around campus in our work vehicle. This always dovetailed really nicely, in our opinion, with the plain-as fact that Zion and her people would eventually become the envy of the world and could already easily out-engineer the best engineers that any first-world nation could muster. The same sentiments were shared in classrooms with the topic of internet backbones "coincidentally passing right through" Utah. Why was it so? Well because the Lord would insist upon only the finest internet for his finest priesthood-engineers in the latter days, of course. Do your home teaching! There were lots of lovely little cultural side-alley discussions like these.
- throwaway0asd 4y ago
  Early internet backbone certainly did pass though Utah because University of Utah was one of the original four implementation points (IMP) of ARPANET
  - dendrite9 4y ago
    U of U also has a small, 100 kilowatt reactor. The BYU one is news to me but I didn't have much connection to that school. https://www.civil.utah.edu/graduate-nuclear-engineering/ https://www.civil.utah.edu/graduate-nuclear-engineering/ https://www.deseret.com/2011/3/16/20370414/university-of-utah-has-own-nuclear-reactor-tucked-away https://www.deseret.com/2011/3/16/20370414/university-of-uta...
  - ahazred8ta 4y ago
    That's because in the 1800s a 200 foot wide transcontinental telegraph right of way was established, running past the Great Salt Lake. Hundreds of cables have been laid along it. There's a string of datacenters along that line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroad#Union_Pacific_route https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroa...
rootusrootus 4y ago
I was thinking maybe it was some kind of research reactor like the ones we have at Oregon State University and Reed. But you weren't kidding, it was a -tiny- reactor. Atomics International L77, 10 whole watts. Licensed from 1967 to 1992 [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_research_reactors#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_research_react...
wwweston 4y ago
Was this where that set of stairs that went down into the ground outside North-ish of the ESC went?
- SeanLuke 4y ago
  IIRC it was on the hill south of the testing center.
- alacritas0 4y ago
  Those stairs lead to the underground physics labs. They're mostly just optic, electron imaging, and solid state labs. There is a linear accelerator and an oil drum housing some equipment from the Steven E. Jones days [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_E._Jones#Links_covering_Steven_Jones'_Cold_Fusion_research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_E._Jones#Links_covering...

themodelplumber 4y ago

I remember hearing about that, and related rumors from coworkers at BYU. They'd point out the guesstimated location as we drove around campus in our work vehicle. This always dovetailed really nicely, in our opinion, with the plain-as fact that Zion and her people would eventually become the envy of the world and could already easily out-engineer the best engineers that any first-world nation could muster. The same sentiments were shared in classrooms with the topic of internet backbones "coincidentally passing right through" Utah. Why was it so? Well because the Lord would insist upon only the finest internet for his finest priesthood-engineers in the latter days, of course. Do your home teaching! There were lots of lovely little cultural side-alley discussions like these.

throwaway0asd 4y ago
Early internet backbone certainly did pass though Utah because University of Utah was one of the original four implementation points (IMP) of ARPANET
- dendrite9 4y ago
  U of U also has a small, 100 kilowatt reactor. The BYU one is news to me but I didn't have much connection to that school. https://www.civil.utah.edu/graduate-nuclear-engineering/ https://www.civil.utah.edu/graduate-nuclear-engineering/ https://www.deseret.com/2011/3/16/20370414/university-of-utah-has-own-nuclear-reactor-tucked-away https://www.deseret.com/2011/3/16/20370414/university-of-uta...
- ahazred8ta 4y ago
  That's because in the 1800s a 200 foot wide transcontinental telegraph right of way was established, running past the Great Salt Lake. Hundreds of cables have been laid along it. There's a string of datacenters along that line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroad#Union_Pacific_route https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroa...

rootusrootus 4y ago

I was thinking maybe it was some kind of research reactor like the ones we have at Oregon State University and Reed. But you weren't kidding, it was a -tiny- reactor. Atomics International L77, 10 whole watts. Licensed from 1967 to 1992 [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_research_reactors#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_research_react...

wwweston 4y ago

Was this where that set of stairs that went down into the ground outside North-ish of the ESC went?

SeanLuke 4y ago
IIRC it was on the hill south of the testing center.
alacritas0 4y ago
Those stairs lead to the underground physics labs. They're mostly just optic, electron imaging, and solid state labs. There is a linear accelerator and an oil drum housing some equipment from the Steven E. Jones days [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_E._Jones#Links_covering_Steven_Jones'_Cold_Fusion_research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_E._Jones#Links_covering...