Thomas Zauner
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thomaszauner.bsky.social
Thomas Zauner
@thomaszauner.bsky.social
750 followers 2.2K following 90 posts
Freelance science writer, science journalist, community organizer. Vienna. Physics, climate, ecology, science&society, and more in English and German.

Here to connect and share resources. May contain TTRPGs and solarpunk.

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thomaszauner.bsky.social
I've found nothing so far on Mickey Nuke, but this paper (hiroshima-cu.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/191/f..., direct download link) mentions on page 14 a "Nickey Nuke" (see image) from the film "Containment" (www.containmentmovie.com).
An image of a black and white cartoon character that looks like an upright-walking panda bear with white shoes and gloves. The image is from the research paper "The Visible and the Invisible when Considering Northern European Permanent Spent Fuel Storage: Forsmark and Onkalo" and the depicted caption reads "Figure 6: Nickey Nuke (image taken from the film, Containment)".
June 12, 2025 at 12:38 PM
thomaszauner.bsky.social
and here with the second part of the alt-text
Human warriors return from space (11991) A battleship returning from a mission loses control upon re-entering the earth environment. Attempting to reduce speed, the ship fires lasers into the ground near the WIPP site. The effect of lasers and the crash impact penetrates the site. Mickey Nuke and WIPP worlds (11191) The WIPP Museum and WIPP Worlds become major tourist attractions at the WIPP site. Mickey Nuke is a fictional character that survives many generations. As long as he lives, the warnings about WIPP survive.
June 12, 2025 at 11:02 AM
thomaszauner.bsky.social
I forgot to add alt-text, I'm sorry. Here again with the first part of alt-text that does not fully fit into the 2,000 character limit.
A table with the title: Point Scenarios of Possible Future Societies—Boston Team. The items of the table are listed below: A feminist world (2091) Women dominate society partially through selection of girl babies. Twentieth century science is discredited as male arrogance. Warnings about repository are dismissed as another example of muddled masculine thinking. Mysticism and religion (2091) A religious cult emerges that rejects existing scientific consensus and realities. Settling in New Mexico, they searched for deeper meaning by digging up the WIPP site. Buried treasure (2091) New Mexico secedes from the United States and is annexed by Mexico. Knowledge about the WIPP site is lost except for some rumors that something valuable is buried there. Treasure hunters are happy to find “warning signs” and begin to dig. WIPP as the nation’s nuclear waste site (2091) WIPP is expanded to receive all kinds of radioactive wastes and other waste, and it is enlarged to many times its planned capacity. Later, some of the wastes are recovered for processing or improved storage, leading to releases of radionuclides. A Houston-to-Los Angeles tunnel (2991) A high-speed transportation tunnel is dug between Houston and Los Angeles with stops near Carlsbad and Phoenix. The tunnel is 2000 feet underground and passes close by the WIPP site. Construction and vibration disrupt the repository. Global illiteracy (2991) A declining United States is replaced by a new State of Eastlandia, which establishes prison mines in New Mexico. Illiterate miners are incapable of reading the messages warning of the danger of the site. Virus impairs computerized people (11991) Owing to a computer virus, robots disregard commands and begin to dig compulsively in the area of New Mexico, penetrating the WIPP site.
June 12, 2025 at 11:01 AM
thomaszauner.bsky.social
Please enjoy this table of possible future scenarios from a 1990s paper in a peer-reviewed journal on how to deal with nuclear waste storage in underground repositories in New Mexico. I found it while doing research for an article on nuclear waste storage. "WIPP" means "Waste Isolation Pilot Plant".
June 12, 2025 at 10:58 AM
thomaszauner.bsky.social
I'm using the Templater plugin to create a "Review" template for any notes on specific media I want to track (books, films, etc.) with some relevant properties in the header. With those, I can also generate a table with the DataView plugin that displays all the media and properties.
A screenshot of an empty and untitled note in the note taking application Obsidian with the title "Untitled" and the following properties: tags, aliases, Medium, Publishing Date, Link, Creator, Guest, and Publishing Institution.
February 3, 2025 at 11:32 AM
thomaszauner.bsky.social
The Serpent of the Ocean. A giant skeleton sculpture shaped like a slithering serpent made from aluminum by Chinese-French artist Huang Yong Ping. It lies half submerged in the gray waters at a beige beach of Western France under a foggy sky.
November 17, 2024 at 7:07 PM