DoE seeks Star Trek phasers for A-plants

[Lori Price CLG]

DoE seeks Star Trek phasers for A-plants

The Department of Energy is turning to old Star Trek phasers to protect its 103 civilian nuclear plants.

Energy weapons capable of harmlessly stunning intruders are being developed and should be in general use by 2008. But many experts warn they will be inadequate and unnecessary for the real security dangers nuclear plant guards would face.

U.S scientists have unveiled details of a project that aims to develop Star Trek-style ray guns that could keep "security adversaries" out of DoE nuclear sites, the vnu.com web-site in the Netherlands reported this week.

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:eyes:


Lori Price

[mbperrin]

1. Another money pit for Pub contractors!!

Ya-hoo! What, no transporter?

[Lori Price CLG]

3. Beam me up, Scotty - I'm tired of the Bush regime! n/t

[Occulus]

2. How long after they're developed will police get them?

And are there any bets on police using them at protests?

A side comment: I now snicker at people who say "Oh, but that's just Star Trek and can't possibly ever be REAL..." Science fact often directly follows science fiction.

[Bassic]

15. Science is often driven by science fiction

[Sabriel]

4. I have one that I put together in the '70s

They can have the tricorder, too, although it's a little beat up now. Some of the stickers have fallen off.

[K-W]

5. I know the appeal, but is the technology ready?

I cant question the desire to have non projectile weapons for use in sensitive structures and areas, but is this just a big waste of money.

[Tesha]

6. There's been a lot of work with...

> I know the appeal, but is the technology ready?

There's been a lot of work with the use of UV lasers to create
ionized channels in air. Through these channels, one could then
send "taser-like" pulses of electricity. The devices would work
like an instantly-aimable wireless taser (and, of course, unlike
a current taser, the new device can be fired as many times as you
like until the batteries go dead).

This work has been going on for at least a few years, is probably
pretty close to ready, and will doubtless be coming to a political
protest near you sometime soon.

Tesha

[htuttle]

8. Of course it isn't ready

That's what they plan on spending all of our money on -- trying to figure out if it will work.

Any laser device that is strong enough to actually do anything requires so much power that there's no way you could power it even with a full-on backpack power supply. They can't really even get it down to reasonable vehicle size (yes I know they have one that can be mounted on a vehicle -- but it has to be a very BIG vehicle).

I'm all for putting money into portable power supply/battery research, but I think we can approach it from a far more practical point of view than trying to build 'Star Trek Phasers'. Like how about better batteries for electric cars? Ooops! Can't have that -- it would impinge on the oil companies' plans for a future monopoly on fuel-cell hydrogen after their oil runs low...

[K-W]

10. Well I meant ready enough to spend this much money on. EOM

[htuttle]

14. Ever seen some of the insane projects at darpa.gov?

ANY idea is ready to spend money on in our government's opinion, as long as it's a defense-related program.

[Lori Price CLG]

17. Right, except for actual security. As, Bush either has the terrorist...

...attacks carried out, or prays for them to occur. Such attacks benefit his regime and his 'war on (of) terror' profiteers.

Lori Price

[Canuckistanian]

7. Idiots! Klingon Disruptors are a much better weapon.

Better yet, just use a cloaking device to hide the nukular plant altogether.

[Torgo Johnson]

16. They will use them to make their "enemies" disappear.

[orion9941]

9. Are batteries included?

[Lori Price CLG]

11. I feel so much safer *already.* - Anything but investing in...

...the development/production of solar or wind energy, etc.

Lori Price

[leesa]

12. Oh! That'll stop those terrorists! What foolishness.

The ONLY way to stop terrorism is to stop invading peoples countries, stop mudering their people and stop stealing their resources. It's the ONLY way.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. OK 2nd Amendment folks.

Does this qualify as 'arms'?

Will the use of these be restricted to the government?

If crooks got ahold of them, they could knock out bank guards, etc, without fear of facing murder/attempted murder charges.

Could it open a whole new aspect of non-lethal hunting? You can go and get that endangered wolf or grizzly without actually killing it.

[MrBenchley]

18. They can have my ray gun when they take it from my cold dead tentacle....