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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The UNM "Experience Nuclear Engineering 2026" summer camp was a blast. Among many other hands-on activities, high-school students operated the Lobo Fusor fusion device, a state-registered accelerator that produces 2E+5 neutrons per second and can make radioisotopes in small quantities. ☢️fun

A student operates the Lobo Fusor at UNM, July 2026

The Lobo Fusor at UNM (with a neutron detector)

Neutron activation of indium by ENE2026 participants on July 17, as attested by a gamma radiation spectrum.

Neutron activation of dysprosium by ENE2026 students on the Lobo Fusor.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

The basement is interesting, especially the plumbing & vac systems for the wet labs above. Also a bunch of safes that have plutonium in them and emit a lot of neutrons. Down at the southeast end is the vault room where they keep the big, finished pieces. (I was not allowed in there.)

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Poor Louie Lobo...based on the blue glow, I think he's just a hair too short for this job! (Or Practical Pig's "wolf pacifier" has entered the nuclear age.) This is a Fusion 360 render, but I confess to using AI to make his little face look more panicked.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

I'm honored to be taking over the 44-year-long tradition of nuclear criticality safety short courses at UNM from Bob Busch this year. We still have some spots open! For crit safety professionals, students, and enthusiasts, this is a fantastic in-person introduction to the field. #NukeSky

UNM 2026 criticality safety courses registration flyer

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Here's a gamma radiation spectrum from an ion exchange column used to make 18-FDG at a cyclotron radiopharmacy. A couple odd TECHNETIUM isotopes are spotted...along with other byproducts of proton activation of the Havar target window. ☢️fun

HPGe gamma spectrum of F-18 ion exchange column

Ion exchange column for fluoride in 18-FDG processing system

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I'm pleased to announce the 2nd annual UNM nuclear engineering camp for HS students (see alt text or QR for website link). Come operate our nuclear reactor, get a free scintillation detector, play with plasma, and more. Message me with questions! Registration is filling up quickly. #NukeSky

UNM Nuclear Engineering summer camp for 2026: https://experiencenuclearengineering.totalcamps.com/About%20Us

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Rather binary--either cold or hot in this area.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

A pleasant morning today at the DeLongchamps and Red Bluff uranium mines near Pyramid Lake in Nevada with Taylor Wilson. Both were small producers in the 1950s and '60s and offer nice specimens of autunite and radiation-darkened quartz phenocrysts. ☢️fun

View southwest from above DeLongchamps Mine adit

Taylor and Chloe at the DeLongchamps Mine adit

Gamma radiation track showing DeLongchamps at SW and Red Bluff to NE

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Taylor Wilson and Chloe graced us with a visit at the UNM nuclear reactor. He's now working on the frontiers of radiobiology (among other things).

Taylor Wilson and GF Chloe visit the UNM nuclear reactor.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

A trip to visit Dr. Tim Koeth, @univofmaryland.bsky.social. I got a couple of my nuclear engineering summer campers and a current UNM NE student in to see the UMD nuclear reactor at power...and Tim's cyclotron, making neutrons!

The University of Maryland nuclear reactor, College Park, running at 100 kW. With Tim Koeth.

Tim Koeth measuring the thermalization time of neutrons produced by D(d,n) reactions in his cyclotron.

Tim Koeth, UMD grad students, one of my students, and Tim's cyclotron.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Another December highlight: 12-year-old Aidan McMillan's hobby Farnsworth fusor in Dallas, producing around 150000 neutrons / second from deuterium fusion, built over three years of effort. He has great mentorship, especially regarding safety, which is obviously important for kids. #HobbyNuke

Aidan McMillan, 12, of Dallas operates his DD Farnsworth Fusor in December 2025.

A calibrated "Bonner ball" neutron survey meter indicates about 5 mrem/h from the fusion neutrons. With a little math, we can determine that the fusion reactions are producing about 150,000 neutrons per second.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

A solstice celebration in Butcher's Hill, #Baltimore was a highlight of my holidays, something I found refreshingly original. The crankie theater featuring Ravioli and Dorito is the work of @marthasi.bsky.social.

A crankie panorama show for the winter solstice in Patterson Park, Baltimore

Robbin and Pippin near our rowhouse in Butchers' Hill

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

WaPo wants my subscription dollars back. But as long as this is a Jeff Bezos-owned rag, they have no hope of "holding power to account" and no chance of getting me to subscribe again. Laughable.

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Reposted by Carl Willis

Ted Miguel @tedmiguel.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Nobel prize winner George Akerlof (my former colleague) on the firing of statistics officials: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | What to Do When the President Acts Like a Five-Year-Old?

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

☢️fun gamma ray spectrum of the day: photonuclear activation from a 15-MV cancer therapy accelerator. As part of our summer camp, we ran 5000 MU (5 kGy in water, basically) with an HPGe detector in the vault. Some of the observed nuclides are formed in the detector itself, some in the linac head.

Gamma spectrum from linac vault. In-116m and Ge-75m are formed by photoneutron capture in the detector itself. Mn-56, W-187, Nd-141m, Re-184, and Cu isotopes are formed by photonuclear and neutron captures in the structures of the treatment head. All of this is on top of a very strong Al-28 signal from neutron-capture activation of the HPGe cryostat.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

"Experience Nuclear Engineering 2025"--a pilot one-week residential summer camp for high-schoolers--concluded at #UNM this past weekend. I had a lot of fun planning all the hands-on components, including #nuclear reactor operations, and made a lot of new friends! ☢️fun #NukeSky

High school students perform an approach to critical experiment using the UNM AGN-201M nuclear reactor.

ENE2025 participants in the UNM NE hot cell.

UNM ENE2025 campers visiting the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center's new 15-MV Elekta linac (and measuring radiation from photonuclear reactions in the head)

At the Mark-17 bomb site near Albuquerque.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Albuquerque rose to the occasion today to send a message of resistance against the lawless Trump regime and its sycophants. I saw a lot of enthusiasm and homemade signs.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

The UNM NE Department is hosting a FREE residential summer camp July 20-26 for HS students. See link in attached flyer for details. #Nuclear #Engineering @unm.edu @unmengineering.bsky.social #NukeSky ☢️fun

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

#UNM Nuclear Engineering is hosting a residential, hands-on summer camp for HS students, July 20-26. It's FREE to attend--and should be a lot of fun. I'm director. Spread the word & register here: experiencenuclearengineering.totalcamps.com/About%20Us Questions? Let me know! #NukeSky ☢️fun

experiencenuclearengineering.totalcamps.com

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

The Mind Research Network (www.mrn.org) on UNM North Campus uses a nice 3-tesla MRI for research. If you're in #Albuquerque, sign up for a study, contribute to important research, get cool images & corporeally experience Faraday's Law. T1- and T2-weighted examples of my own dome attached.

t1-weighted MRI scan through the eyeball

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

The battery is one of the weak links on the 9DP! Otherwise, I really like this instrument.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

This is a very professional-looking lead castle. I have made similar castles before, and lined them with 1mm "lead-free pewter" (i.e., pure tin) and then thin copper as shown here.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Awful times we're living in. I hope UNM does all it can to forcefully advocate for its foreign students.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Gingersnap is home and ready to #chonk out after getting treated for hyperthyroidism with iodine-131. His head reads about 10 mR/h at 10 cm. Not great, not terrible, as they say. ☢️fun

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

F-18 is widely used in medical PET imaging. I ran a gamma spec on a discarded F-18 vial (F-18 all decayed away, no activity measurable on a Geiger counter), and the traces of radioactive Re, Co, Cr, and Tc point to a variety of proton reactions on W, Fe, and Mo in the cyclotron target! ☢️fun

A discarded vial that once contained cyclotron-produced F-18 FDG for PET diagnostic imaging.

Low energy end of the HPGe spectrum, F-18 vial

High energy end of the HPGe spectrum, F-18 vial

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

It's wages-of-sin-are-death Wednesday out on Central Avenue. I was invited to "get up with Jesus on the cross today," which I politely declined.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Jeff #Bezos is a disgrace--an enshittifying force in US civics and the marketplace, along with fellow dissipated plutocrats / trumpanzees Musk & Zuckerberg. Accordingly, I've decided to unsubscribe from his rag (WaPo) and his junk emporium (Amazon Prime). Feeling better already.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

...And, this is why you don't automatically congratulate a Trump nominee.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Share your favorites if you get a chance! I am growing my collection of modern rad quackery.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

It'll be interesting seeing how this rag reconciles its long history of GOP cheerleading and endorsements as the chickens come home to roost.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Ever had to drop a deuce but unsure how to announce it respectably in refined company? Here's how.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

I used to have one. Never had much use for the higher decades on the meter, however!

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

In "honor" of the appointment of RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health, I made a short video that looks at the kinds of radioactive products that flourish in the alt health and wellness ecosystem of a society struggling with declining information literacy. #NukeSky ☢️fun www.youtube.com/shorts/S4Qjz...

youtube.com

Contemporary radioactive quackery

YouTube video by Carl Willis

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Given the talk of annexation, etc., Canada would be justified in sanctioning trump and other major regime figures and freezing their assets in Canada.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Thermal. We generate no electricity!

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Gotta make room for new toys. This is well used and well loved, and if space and money were no object I'd keep it.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Probably means you wouldn't get much use out of this thing! Sorry for the jargon!

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

For sale: Polimaster PM1703GN PRD. Working fine (both gamma & neutron response). This device uses both CsI and LiI scintillator modules and reads in roentgen units for gamma and counts/sec for neutrons. Has data logging abilities. $200 OBO. #HobbyNuke

Response to photons (here, saturating the uR/h readout) and neutrons (saturating the CPS readout) in a graphite thermal column with PuBe sources present.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

For sale: Exploranium GR-100 PRD, working fine but heavily used, with scratches on the screen! The GR-100 is the gamma-only version of this detector (though it has a neutron indicator lamp). It's a little CsI scintillator with dosimetric readout and data logging. $150 OBO. #HobbyNuke

Response in a ~1 mrem/h photon environment with some neutrons present.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Hand-loading of nuclear fuel into the #UNM AGN-201M reactor, part of an approach-to-critical teaching lab we perform every year. The fuel is enriched UO2 in HDPE plastic. With our 5W licensed power, the dose rate near the core is less than 10 mrem/h. #NukeSky

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

One of my favorites also. A digital meter with an analog display, dead time correction, and adjustable high voltage. Typically dirt cheap on the secondhand market, so nice for taking outside.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Well, I'm curious how it's done, but don't feel obligated to research that on my behalf! I'd think there would be a lot of 241 in it, in which case it would need frequent cleanup to get rid of the Am and its gamma rays and heat.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

He's a big trump donor & climate denier. Like any of this cabinet, I'd wait to offer congratulations publicly unless & until he demonstrates an ability to be reasonable and not corrupt in office! Perry didn't know what DOE did 😂, but merits an attaboy (I suppose) for not being flagrantly corrupt.

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Reposted by Carl Willis

Megan Keener @meganrkeener.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Using Pu-242 has resulted in some of the best colors I’ve ever seen as a chemist. 🤩 @realtimechem.bsky.social @berkeleylab.lbl.gov #plutonium #realtimechem #fblockrocks #radiochemistry

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Reposted by Carl Willis

Ralf W @raflw.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

The New York Times is so blatantly in the tank for Trump. Calling Canada and Mexico "recalcitrant" is just beyond the pale. It's straight up propaganda.

Peter Baker of the NYT writes "With Canada, Mexico, China, Colombia and the Middle East, President Trump has wasted no time threatening to use American might to force recalcitrant countries to back down and do what he wants."

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Very good colors! What's the isotopic composition of this Pu and how was it made? Trying to think of how to get high-purity macroscopic amounts of Pu-242.

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Reposted by Carl Willis

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Several conversations today w people in the key executive departments. And while the particulars are hard to pin down my impression is that the Musk take over stuff is considerably worse than is being presented in the press. By this I don’t necessarily things they *done* yet but the level of …

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Why stop at counter-tariffs? Please 🇨🇦🇲🇽go ahead and sanction trump, musk, etc., expel regime "diplomats," freeze the local assets of regime-friendly US oligarchs & let them come to Canadian courts to deal with it. Instantly dial up to 11 and exploit element of surprise.

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Carl Willis @carlwillis.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Elon isn't working (and hasn't worked for 20 years)... he's vandalizing.

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