The Monster in the Basement: Kodak Plant Held Secret Nuclear Reactor for Decades

Camera giant Eastman Kodak kept a rather disturbing secret for over thirty years: the company had a fully-functioning nuclear reactor at its headquarters in the middle of busy Rochester, New York.

Until 2007, the company stored 3.5 pounds of weapons-grade uranium in a refrigerator-sized nuclear reactor in the basement of its Kodak Park site. Housed inside a concrete bunker two feet thick, the reactor was ostensibly used for imaging and to detect impurities in supplies for the film company.

The highly-enriched uranium, the same material used to make nuclear weapons, was removed in November 2007 in protective containers, the report said. It is believed the company obtained the uranium in 1974. Kodak has stated that no employees of the company had access to the reactor, prompting many journalists to ask "who did operate the facility"?

Kodak insists that the company only constructed the device to carry out research into neutrons -- subatomic particles that can create an image of a material without damaging it.

Snow on the Pumpkin: Rare October Snow Storm to Blanket East Coast

A classic nor’easter is chugging along up the East Coast of the United States and expected to dump anywhere from a dusting of snow to about 10 inches throughout the region starting Saturday, a decidedly unseasonal date for a type of storm more associated with midwinter.

New York has today been hit by snowfall before Halloween for only the fourth time since the time of the US Civil War. The entire North East of the nation is bracing for a chilling weekend as 60 million people are expected to experience a rare October snowstorm, which will unleash heavy, wet snow and wind.
New England has already been struck by a very early snowfall and 10,000 residents in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia were today without power after snow, according to AccuWeather.com.
This weekend looks set to see huge amounts of sleet and snow covering the North East, invariably causing power outages and travel chaos. Some areas bracing for up to a foot of snow.

The weather keeps getting stranger and stranger...

The Faces of Fear: Hilarious Photos of Haunted House Visitors Getting Scared to Death

Photo Credit ABC/Nightmares Fear Factory

ABC's Good Morning, America  is scaring up some Halloween fun by showing a hilarious slide show of stills taken of terrified visitors to Nightmare's Fear Factory haunted house in Niagara Falls, New York! Isn't it amazing how, even when we know we are about to be terrorized by a chain-saw wielding man in a leather mask when we enter a room, we still jump right out of our pants (and sometimes grab the clothing off people we are with)! The look of fear was never so much fun! For a full montage of all the pants-poopers and pee-droppers, check out the TheFW:

Haunted House Visitors Scared to Death!