TimS comments on A cynical explanation for why rationalists worry about FAI - Less Wrong

25 Post author: aaronsw 04 August 2012 12:27PM

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Comment author: TimS 05 August 2012 02:00:24AM 1 point [-]

There's some ambiguity in your use of the word "science." Nuclear engineering is controversial (i.e. building and running nuclear plants is politically controversial).

But the post I was responding to was about research. In terms of political controversy, I suspect that nuclear researchers receive essentially no hate mail, especially compared to sociologists researching child-rearing outcomes among opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

Comment author: Decius 05 August 2012 07:40:18PM 0 points [-]

Nuclear researchers run reactors. It's pretty much the only commercially viable way to test the effects of neutron bombardment on materials. They typically aren't power plants, because steam turbines are a lot more work to operate and research reactors are typically intermittent and low power (in terms of the electrical grid)