Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival

Posted by kdawson on from the can't-cut-it dept.

NobleSavage sends a story from Bloomberg about Japan Steel Works Ltd., a company that still makes Samurai swords, and how it may control the fate of the global nuclear-energy renaissance. "There stands the only plant in the world, a survivor of Allied bombing in World War II, capable of producing the central part of a nuclear reactor's containment vessel in a single piece, reducing the risk of a radiation leak. Utilities that won't need the equipment for years are making $100 million down payments now on components Japan Steel makes from 600-ton ingots. Each year the Tokyo-based company can turn out just four of the steel forgings that contain the radioactivity in a nuclear reactor. Even after it doubles capacity in the next two years, there won't be enough production to meet building plans."

20 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Hm by scubamage · · Score: 4, Funny

    So what I want to know is... can they make me a sword out of uranium? Now THAT would be sweet.

    1. Re:Hm by steveo777 · · Score: 4, Funny
      True, a uranium sword would be sweet, but what happens when you grow that third and fourth arm? Sure, you'd think the extra gripping power would be 'handy' on your sword now. But what happens when they deliver that bad boy and in your first uranium sword fight they both go critical mass... Did you ever think of THAT?!

      Maybe depleted uranium.

      --
      This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
    2. Re:Hm by scubamage · · Score: 5, Funny

      Psh, you're missing the point. URANIUM SWORD! And we could create uranium sword wielding robots. This has badass written all over it and highlighted with AWESOME.

    3. Re:Hm by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Funny

      It'd still make a sweet mace.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    4. Re:Hm by ACDChook · · Score: 3, Funny

      having a density of about 19.1g/cm3, it tends to be just over twice as heavy as sword steel (at 7.8g/cm3). Your 2kg sword would be 4.8kg and tire you and your four arms out quite nicely
      But if you have 4 arms, then you'll have twice as much strength to heft the sword, so you will get tired at an equal rate as if the sword was a normal weight with only two arms. So by making you sprout those extra arms, the sword solves its own problems!
    5. Re:Hm by misleb · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not to mention the +5 Nuclear Damage you get. Unfortunately, you get a -3 Dex modifier when wielding. :(

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    6. Re:Hm by ichigo+2.0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      But if you have 4 arms, then you'll have twice as much strength to heft the sword, so you will get tired at an equal rate as if the sword was a normal weight with only two arms. So by making you sprout those extra arms, the sword solves its own problems!
      It truly is a miraculous substance! Buy now and you get a free graphite rod with your purchase!
  2. That's nothing by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 3, Funny

    The guys who make Swiss Army knives have nearly perfected fusion reactors. That can open wine bottles.

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
  3. Re:Japan, WWII, allied bombing, and nukes by morari · · Score: 4, Funny

    Godzilla only serves as a warning of the hazards of nuclear fission gone awry, right?

    --
    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  4. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I for one welcome our new Nuclear Samurai Overlords.

  5. Re:May be a stupid question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Actually, the hardware isn't as specialized as you might imagine. I'm making them with my iPhone in my back yard. I'll sell one to you for $100M.

  6. Re:Candu by lju · · Score: 4, Funny

    A series of tubes? So it works like the internet, then?

  7. Re:4 per year by Zerth · · Score: 5, Funny

    >I don't think I would want to be near a Chinese forged reactor core
    >any time in my life. QC does not seem to be their strong point.

    On the plus side, it is very likely to come coated in lead.

    That's good in this case, right?

  8. But by vandit2k6 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does the sword run Linux?

    --
    Its nice to be important but its more important to be nice
  9. Re:sounds like a way to re-start by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2, Funny

    There will be no revival. Too many environmental restrictions to building such plants!
    I am the dread samurai Robert-san. There will be no revival. I have come for your swoooord!

    (Though a bit late for a Holocaust cloak, one would think, and perhaps the component is a little large for a wheelbarrow)
    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  10. Nice, but how does it compare by edmicman · · Score: 2, Funny

    to a Hanzo Hattori sword?

    1. Re:Nice, but how does it compare by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2, Funny

      And afterwards, it can still slice this tomato clean as a whistle!

  11. Ok, so let China produce them by HeWhoMustNotBeNamed · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure China is capable of certifying and delivering these new designs at a lower cost.

  12. they're not building the containment vessels by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Funny

    for nuclear reactors. they're building them to ENSLAVE WHALES

    maybe the japanese are trying to NUKE THE WHALES?

    first fake scientific research, now this?

    will the japanese stop at nothing to satisfy their insatiable whale flesh thirst?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  13. Depends on the velocity... by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Funny

    The lethality of DU is directly proportional to the delivery velocity.

    --
    No sig today...