Dubious 1980's in-home nuclear reactor ad from Japan

Back in the carefree but confusing days of the 1980's, chicks and dudes were looking for all kinds of new ways to lessen their need for oil-based energy. If you believe anything you see in this ad mockup (and that's a big "if"), a company in Japan was working on a tiny, in-home nuclear reactor -- pleasantly named Chernobyl. We'll have to assume for the moment that this was pre-catastrophic meltdown, when the Russian power-plant was considered a feat of modern engineering instead of just a big, mutant-making hellride. The device supposedly would have been "simple to operate, even for children and the elderly", but carried an ominous warning to "discontinue use" if you experience "dizziness or a tingling sensation". Was this for real? Read the translation and judge for yourself.

[randy @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:12AM]

Great Idea! But maybe i'll get my neighbors together and instead of us each buying our own individual unit, we'll pool our money together and build a single unit, only bigger!

But you know I'm thinking maybe we should buy that empty lot outside of town and put it there, instead of the kitchen. Just so there's no chance for any interference. Then we'll just run some power cables back to our street!

And then maybe if that works we'll build an even bigger one some day and sell the excess power for profit, so folks who can't afford their own reactors or don't want one in their backyard or kitchen can buy our energy for cheap!

Yay!

[groggit @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:23AM]

thats just fuc*ed up man. LOL 'people near the device may, on rare occasions, experience dizziness or a tingling sensation in the hands or feet....temporarily discontinue use' I love it how they say temporarily, not just 'shut the god damn thing off, its giving you cancer'.

[spam_from_engadget @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:28AM]

From the 1980s this is obviously fake, but if you go back to the 1950s you can find more-genuine sounding proposals of this sort from the USA:

"The basic questions of design, material and shielding, in combining a nuclear reactor with a home boiler and cooling unit, no longer are problems... The system would heat and cool a home, provide unlimited household hot water, and melt the snow from sidewalks and driveways. All that could be done for six years on a single charge of fissionable material costing about $300." –- Robert Ferry, executive of the U.S. Institute of Boiler and Radiator Manufacturers, 1955.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find an original source for this quote, so I fear that it is probably an urban myth.

[Richard @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:30AM]

タマネギ

I am sure that this is from the Japanese equivalent of The Onion.

[Mills @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:30AM]

this is awesome. im pretty sure i can get a used one on ebay. that would be teh R0x0r5!

[Henrik @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:35AM]

Where to sign up?

[Roy Shay @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:49AM]

It's "1980s'" not "1980's"; In other words, it doesn't belong to the year 1980, but rather it's from the 80s.

[Blake @ Jun 23rd 2007 11:19AM]

Cool. Now i can name my house Pripyat.

[Scott G. @ Dec 25th 2007 12:27AM]

Better than naming it Chernobyl.

[genexk @ Jun 23rd 2007 11:46AM]

family size a-bomb?

[00 @ Jun 23rd 2007 12:16PM]

so this must be selling well in iran then?

[Castle @ Jun 23rd 2007 12:35PM]

Its a funny parody.

Its named the "Chernobyl" Household Nuclear Generator after all.

[Artr @ Jun 23rd 2007 12:39PM]

I'm guessing the theory behind the way this worked is the same way that those pacemakers work on nuclear batteries.

so no chance of explosions... just chance of slowly dying....

[Dustin @ Jun 23rd 2007 12:52PM]

aren't we also slowly dying?

que sad music.

[Charles R Hamilton @ Jun 23rd 2007 2:15PM]

Sad but true, the mortality rate among humans is still 100%

[BigD145 @ Jun 23rd 2007 1:17PM]

For the 80's, this is most likely a sham. Back in the 50's we had such fun US government backed projects as, "Let's dig water canals using controlled nuclear explosives" and "I bet we could use this technology to pump natural gas deep underground." The only two nuclear tests east of the Mississippi were underground and used for natural gas extraction. They "just happened" to find out the gas became irradiated and couldn't be used. ... Duh!

[Sizer @ Jun 23rd 2007 4:17PM]

The little text on the bottom right (with the star over it) says that both the product and the company are fictional.

[Neil O. @ Jun 23rd 2007 4:20PM]

Exterminate! Exterminate!

[kirby @ Jun 23rd 2007 7:14PM]

DALEKS!

[Bill @ Jun 23rd 2007 8:19PM]

Hmmm... wonder what electricity goes for in Japan?

Saw a neat "green" show, can't remember where (PBS?)

The Japanese family had a natural gas powered fuel cell in their apartment providing electricity (I think it was a 2kW unit)

Love to know if those are available here in the U.S.

[JN @ Jun 23rd 2007 10:23PM]

It says it's fiction on the right side of the picture in Japanese.
I was suprised.

[LibraRonin @ Jun 24th 2007 1:00AM]

The fine print on the right side of the white section pretty much says "the product depicted in this ad is fiction. Therefore, please understand that the product, as well as the company, does not exist." (rough guess as some of the characters are blurry...)

[Russell @ Jun 24th 2007 3:42AM]

Some Japanese company actually makes self contained / self monitoring buriable small nuclear reactors for research stations and the like... Can't remember who...

[Dennis @ Jun 24th 2007 4:54AM]

Idiots, Chernobyl is in Ukraine! Neither Engadget nor 22 above commentators don't know that!

[Constable Odo @ Jun 24th 2007 12:58PM]

After the US's testing of the A-bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you'd figure that the Japanese wouldn't have anything to do with nuclear gadgets.

[Chris @ Jun 24th 2007 6:35PM]

@ Dennis
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union at the time of the explosion (1986). So there's no reason to be calling everyone idiots.

[numberoneconsumer @ Jun 24th 2007 7:38PM]

Seriously weak, Engadget.
"beatboxing" & Chernobyl
Two signs of obliviousness on the same page. Just because your lunch money is no longer stolen on a daily basis does not mean that you are successful.

[parsleyboots @ Jun 28th 2007 11:13AM]

Even the phone number is a joke. 0235 (from Uranium-235, I suppose) 37564 > minagoroshi = annihiliation/holocaust, etc.