News: Cyclotrons are our friends

(via NPR) Albert Swank wants to operate a nuclear cyclotron in his garage in Anchorage, Alaska, ostensibly to produce medical isotopes that have a short shelf life and are in demand. His neighbors don't want this so badly, they've pushed the city council to promulgate an ordinance that bans cyclotrons, ever.

Cyclotrons are our friends. They help us explore the boundaries of the big bang, play with the building blocks of the universe, and finger the gossamer edges of creation itself. I've driven over the miles-wide Stanford Linear Accelerator and interviewed scientists who work at Chicago's FermiLab and the Minnesota's Tower-Soudan Mine. This is more ethereal stuff than rocket or space science, and it has the potential to tell us What the Bleep Do We Know, for real.

But a cyclotron in your neighbor's garage? How about zoning for nuclear industry?

From the NPR report, Swank seems to have been secretive and even deceptive in his applications for the device. Moreover, he seemed adamant that he would install and operate the cyclotron, despite any opposition (not an entirely rational response).

Cyclotrons are our friends, but jerks who have cyclotrons are not.