S3 E1: Close To Home

Wild Thing

Foxtopus Ink

Science

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Wild Thing: Going Nuclear, we’ll use science, history and culture to probe the realities of atomic energy today, while analyzing our own fascination— and ambivalence—with all things atomic. What are the true risks? And what is the actual potential? Are we better at this than we were sixty years ago? And given our nature, are we humans even responsible enough to harness the power of the universe—and should we?

*Become a premium subscriber to Wild Thing! Premium subscribers get each new episode early, and exclusive access to all bonus episodes, not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting the show. Go to https://wildthing.supportingcast.fm/ to find out more!

*Season 3 of Wild Thing is produced by Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Editing by Alicia Lincoln. Music and mixing by Louis Weeks.

*Find us on social media - @wildthingpod - and on our website https://wildthingpodcast.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi Wild Thing fans, do you have kids? Do you know any kids? Or are you just a big kid yourself?
0:07.3	Have I got some very exciting news for you? Wild Thing is no longer just a podcast.
0:13.6	It's a middle grade non-fiction book series aimed at kids between the ages of 8 and 13.
0:19.9	And the first book, The Search for Sasquatch, which is based on the first season of Wild Thing,
0:25.3	is available now. It's a beautiful hardcover book with full color illustrations, or if you like
0:31.6	the melodious sounds of my voice, there's also an audio book from Audible. My guess is you'll
0:37.9	probably want to get both. For more information on where to find it, go to wildthingpodcast.com.
0:48.2	The alarm bells went off at 901 pm.
0:51.3	Deep in the Idaho desert, the men sitting inside the warmth of fire station number one, no doubt,
0:58.0	rolled their eyes. The alert came from a small nuclear test reactor, known as SL1. It's set isolated,
1:05.3	eight miles down the road, and this would be the firefighters third trip there today.
1:11.2	Twice already, they had responded to false alarms from a faulty fire detector at the small reactor.
1:16.4	Now it was dark and bitterly cold, below zero, on this frigid January night. So the idea of
1:23.3	suiting up just to go reset the fire alarm was not very appealing, but that was a job, and off they
1:29.2	went, anticipating a quick trip. Nine minutes later, the firemen arrived at the gate. It was locked.
1:36.5	And normally, one of the three men working at the SL1 reactor would buzz them in, but no one
1:42.0	answered the phone. This was the first clue that something was off. The next one came when they
1:47.6	got inside and saw a warning light blinking on the control panel of the reactor, but couldn't find
1:53.2	any of the men who were supposed to be working. They saw three coats, three lunch boxes, they checked
1:59.2	the log, three people working, but nobody was in the office area. And so they started going up the
2:05.2	stairway, the access to the reactor itself, and then closed stairway on the outside of the
2:10.0	silo. And that's when their meters started going up. Their Geiger counters. The readings on the
	...

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