What do you do with a nuclear reactor project that has been left unused for decades? In Washington state, one such facility was cleverly repurposed and hacked to remove sound, all in the name of scientific exploration.

Back in 1977, near Seattle, the Washington Nuclear Projects 3 and 5 (WNP-3 and WNP-5) were initiated as part of the ambitious Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS), which is often humorously pronounced as whoops. Despite their initial promise, these projects quickly fell victim to budget overruns and mismanagement. By the 1980s, they were effectively mothballed, even though WNP-3 was nearly complete at that time.

Fast forward to 2010, when Ron and Bonnie Sauro embarked on establishing their new acoustical laboratory, NWAA Labs. Initially, they had envisioned constructing their facility within the confines of a mountain, but their search led them to an unexpected discovery: an auxiliary reactor building. This structure was part of a defunct nuclear power facility and boasted concrete and rebar walls five feet thick, making it an optimal location for their acoustical experiments and tests.

The stringent facility requirements set by standards organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ensure that labs can produce comparable and reliable results. These requirements encompass aspects like stable temperature, humidity control, and reverberation characteristics. Remarkably, the temperature within the repurposed facility remains a consistent 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius), regardless of the external weather conditions.

Acoustical laboratories are crucial for companies looking to refine their designs and ensure compliance with acoustic standards, especially those relating to noise emissions. Over the past fifteen years, NWAA Labs has conducted a variety of tests on diverse products, including carpet samples, noise-cancelling headphones, sound-dampening construction materials, and even the interior of an airplanes crew cabin!

If there were any doubts regarding Ron Sauro's credentials as a hacker, he dispels them with his own words: Im a carpenter, a plumber, a welder, I can fix a car, he proudly states. Anything that needs to be done, I can do. Because I have to. His resourcefulness and skill set paint a picture of a true jack-of-all-trades.

Perhaps its time to send a wearable cone of silence to Ron for a comprehensive test of its efficacy. And if you happen to have experience hacking a nuclear power plant, we would love to hear your stories in the comments!