Hi Gang,
I was off on vacation out in Albuquerque and the area this week, and I stopped in "The Black Hole" (a surplus store) in Los Alamos

I found some really nice storage containers that they called "Nuclear Rabbits" - cheap. Bought 5 - at 10 cents each



He will do mail order

They are cute, but the name worries me. Is this what is left after a rabbit after too much radiation exposure?

They are unused, I gather they get that nickname because they are everywhere in the area of Nuke research reactors

Their "Real" use in life is to put samples/objects that need irradiation for either sterilization or isotope change, and blow them via pneumatic tube into a research reactor. The "rabbit" is left in the reactor the right amount of time, then blown out the other side. He had about 6-8 cases sitting next to the front door - something like 100 in each case, and $5 for a case. And yeah, they check everything coming into the store with a Geiger counter, they still sometimes get old aircraft parts with radium paint markings - they go into "the collection" (the stuff not for sale)

Wild store. Ed, the guy who runs the place used to work for the labs.

If you need an oscilloscope (used) he might be the place to go - most are OLD ones (things like Textronix 561a, etc - aka early 70s scopes) but working (old tube monsters) - he also has more cryogenic stuff, and high vacuum pumps etc

Old tube oscilloscopes usually top out at 5-megs or so. Not that useful.


The plastic containers look like they would be useful if you were to put an o-ring on them to make sure they are waterproof.

Sounds like my kind of place. Just for fun I googled it, came up with a pic of ole Ed, his hair makes it look like he has been hanging onto a lightening rod. But at least he has hair.

One site that popped up in the search was headed "FBI Agents raid Los Alamos store," but it wouldn't open...

I wonder if some teflon tape on the threads would seal 'em up if they're not already airtight. Looks like it would hold about 3 CR123A batteries.

Ed is an amazing guy. There's an in-development documentary on him and the Black Hole store online called "Laboratory Conditions" at http://www.coudal.com/losalamos/ . It's in five parts, and fun -- well worth your time to watch.

Ed isn't well health wise. When I got there, he was at the MD - said he was there all morning

I was told he has metastatic colon cancer, but that it is "under control"

The way I would describe the place - if you remember Canal St in NYC, say, 30-35 years ago (and maybe more) - all the old surpluse places? Now reduce it to ONE place, but make the place the size of a supermarket (which the building was)

If I lived close enough, I could have spent some serious $$ - things like file cabinets etc