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April 15, 20255 min readHow Dangerous Nuclear Waste Is Stored in the U.S.The decades-long struggle to find a permanent place to dispose of nuclear waste in the U.S. will continue, probably for many years to comeBy Gerald Frankel & The Conversation US Storage site for high level radioactive waste at the Hanford Reservation. The site once produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. Karen Kasmauski/Getty ImagesThe following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Around the U.S., about 90,000 tons of nuclear waste is stored at over 100 sites in 39 states, in a range of different structures and containers.For decades, the nation has been trying to send it all to one secure location.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.A 1987 federal law named Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste – but political and legal challenges led to construction delays. Work on the site had barely started before Congress ended the project’s funding altogether in 2011.The 94 nuclear reactors currently operating at 54 power plants continue to generate more radioactive waste. Public and commercial interest in nuclear power is rising because of concerns regarding emissions from fossil fuel power plants and the possibility of new applications for smaller-scale nuclear plants to power data centers and manufacturing. This renewed interest gives new urgency to the effort to find a place to put the waste.In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments related to the effort to find a temporary storage location for the nation’s nuclear waste – a ruling is expected by late June. No matter the outcome, the decades-long struggle to find a permanent place to dispose of nuclear waste will probably continue for many years to come.I am a scholar who specializes in corrosion; one focus of my work has been containing nuclear waste during temporary storage and permanent disposal. There are generally two forms of significantly radioactive waste in the U.S.: waste from making nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and waste from generating electricity at nuclear power plants. There are also small amounts of other radioactive waste, such as that associated with medical treatments.Waste from weapons manufacturingRemnants of the chemical processing of radioactive material needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, often called “defense waste,” will eventually be melted along with glass, with the resulting material poured into stainless steel containers. These canisters are 10 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter, weighing approximately 5,000 pounds when filled.For now, though, most of it is stored in underground steel tanks, primarily at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina, key sites in U.S. nuclear weapons development. At Savannah River, some of the waste has already been processed with glass, but much of it remains untreated.At both of those locations, some of the radioactive waste has already leaked into the soilbeneath the tanks, though officials have said there is no danger to human health. Most of the current efforts to contain the waste focus on protecting the tanks from corrosion and cracking to prevent further leakage.Waste from electricity generationThe vast majority of nuclear waste in the U.S. is spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.Before it is used, nuclear fuel exists as uranium oxide pellets that are sealed within zirconium tubes, which are themselves bundled together. These bundles of fuel rods are about 12 to 16 feet long and about 5 to 8 inches in diameter. In a nuclear reactor, the fission reactions fueled by the uranium in those rods emit heat that is used to create hot water or steam to drive turbines and generate electricity.After about three to five years, the fission reactions in a given bundle of fuel slow down significantly, even though the material remains highly radioactive. The spent fuel bundles are removed from the reactor and moved elsewhere on the power plant’s property, where they are placed into a massive pool of water to cool them down.After about five years, the fuel bundles are removed, dried and sealed in welded stainless steel canisters. These canisters are still radioactive and thermally hot, so they are stored outdoors in concrete vaults that sit on concrete pads, also on the power plant’s property. These vaults have vents to ensure air flows past the canisters to continue cooling them.As of December 2024, there were over 315,000 bundles of spent nuclear fuel rods in the U.S., and over 3,800 dry storage casks in concrete vaults above ground, located at current and former power plants across the country.Even reactors that have been decommissioned and demolished still have concrete vaults storing radioactive waste, which must be secured and maintained by the power company that owned the nuclear plant.Salt spray from the ocean can corrode waste containers at nearby nuclear waste storage sites, like this one at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe threat of waterOne threat to these storage methods is corrosion.Because they need water to both transfer nuclear energy into electricity and to cool the reactor, nuclear power plants are always located alongside sources of water.In the U.S., nine are within two miles of the ocean, which poses a particular threat to the waste containers. As waves break on the coastline, saltwater is sprayed into the air as particles. When those salt and water particles settle on metal surfaces, they can cause corrosion, which is why it’s common to see heavily corroded structures near the ocean.At nuclear waste storage locations near the ocean, that salt spray can settle on the steel canisters. Generally, stainless steel is resistant to corrosion, which you can see in the shiny pots and pans in many Americans’ kitchens. But in certain circumstances, localized pits and cracks can form on stainless steel surfaces.In recent years, the U.S. Department of Energy has funded research, including my own, into the potential dangers of this type of corrosion. The general findings are that stainless steel canisters could pit or crack when stored near a seashore. But a radioactive leak would require not only corrosion of the container but also of the zirconium rods and of the fuel inside them. So it is unlikely that this type of corrosion would result in the release of radioactivity.A long way offA more permanent solution is likely years, or decades, away.Not only must a long-term site be geologically suitable to store nuclear waste for thousands of years, but it must also be politically palatable to the American people. In addition, there will be many challenges associated with transporting the waste, in its containers, by road or rail, from reactors across the country to wherever that permanent site ultimately is.Perhaps there will be a temporary site whose location passes muster with the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, the waste will stay where it is.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Larian has bid a final farewell to Baldur's Gate 3, its beloved breakout hit that won a legion of fans and propelled the studio to a new level of stardom. Read more

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here As games like The Finals opt to use AI voices instead of human actors, some of the best performers in the business are actively rebelling against AI voice technology. In a recent interview, The Witcher 3 performance director Kate Saxon explained that, no matter what hordes of Twitter techbros think, AI voices can’t “replace that human spark” that makes stories so great. Speaking to EDGE Magazine in Issue 409, Saxon explained that she doesn’t see AI ever replacing actors in their entirety. While AI could be used for pick-ups of adding minor lines, the vast majority of strong performances will still be powered by talented actors. “I just don’t see it ever fully replacing actors” Saxton told EDGE Magazine (via GamesRadar) “At least not in the kinds of games that truly care about strong storytelling, rich characters, and meaningful dialogue.” “There’s something missing [when using AI] something you can’t quite quantify – that lifts a performance from decent to genuinely moving,” they continued. Saxton’s work in the video games industry has been record-breaking. Alongside working in theatre and TV, Saxton has brought killer performances to Alien: Isolation, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Far Cry 3 and more. “Actors bring more than just their voices [to games],” the performance director. “They bring life experience, their instincts, their emotional intelligence.” As games become have become infinitely more complex, performances have also become more complex. While amazing voice acting is still important, it’s also been matched with professional motion capture with games like The Last of Us and Baldur’s Gate 3 having performers completely act out their scenes. This had led to some incredible moments such as Astarion actor Neil Newbon ad-libbing the character’s best moment, or Lae’zel’s actress subtly changing her performance as her character grows. Saxton is right, performing is much more than just saying the lines, it’s feeling them, and AI can’t feel anything. For The Witcher 3 specifically, CD Projekt RED’s game features some truly majestic performances. Doug Cockle’s Geralt is perfect, and the recently-passed William Roberts’ performance as Vesemir could never be replaced. It’s a game filled with amazing performances, and The Witcher 4 will be as well. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X Genre(s): Action, Action RPG, Adventure, RPG 9 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Leading lights of the design world converged at Palazzo Ralph Lauren in Milan last Wednesday during the city’s annual Salone del Mobile furniture fair for dinner in the inner courtyard, hosted by AD global editorial director Amy Astley and David Lauren, Ralph’s chief branding and innovation officer. Some sixty guests—including AD100 designers Robert Stilin, Laura Gonzalez, and Sheila Bridges and AD heads of editorial content from France, Spain, Italy, China, and Germany–gathered at the midcentury Rationalist-style building in the heart of Milan where Ralph Lauren Home’s fall 2025 collections were on display.Tables in the courtyard of the Palazzo Ralph Lauren are dressed in fabric from the forthcoming Canyon Road collection. The place settings featured Ethan wine glasses, Wentworth silverware, Kenmore dinner napkins, and Everett dinnerware, from the forthcoming Canyon Road collection. Virgile Guinard“When I tell people about Salone del Mobile they think it’s some kind of trade show,” host David Lauren said in his remarks, over Ralph-approved Santa Barbara salads and tuna tartare. “I tell them no, this is a meeting of some of the greatest talents in the world.”The dinner conversation proved it: discussions turned to opera set designs, Cooper Hewitt accolades, and installations at the Louvre—and of course, plenty of upcoming residential projects. Designers joked that Dimorestudio had become something like the creative directors of Milan after putting their stamp on so many hotels, restaurants, and shops around the city. For some designers like newly minted AD100 Lily Dierkes, it was their first Salone. Others were several decades in. All compared notes on what to see. Was Alcova worth the long journey north to Villa Borsani? What was the vibe like at the hot new Fabrizio Casiraghi–designed members club, The Wilde? Who would be spotted the next morning at Barry’s? There was one thing everyone agreed on: they couldn’t get enough of Ralph’s perfectly crispy matchstick skinny French fries.Guests dressed to impress, putting their twist on Americana, from full on prep to blue suede fringe, to one very memorable cowboy hat, donned by Belgian bad boy Job Smeets of Studio Job. It all felt in keeping with the lush, orchid-laden tablescapes that showcased a preview of the brand’s new fall 2025 Canyon Road collection, an ode to the American West. Pewter vases and votives designed in collaboration with siblings Naiomi and Tyler Glasses, Ralph Lauren Home’s first artists in residence, were stamped with motifs typically used in Navajo weaving. Meanwhile, the tablecloths, made of Mesa Stripe fabric, referenced a design Tyler Glasses originally realized on a saddle blanket. AD100 architect David Rockwell admired the matte white Everett dinnerware, which resemble nubby linen, also a new product from the Canyon Road collection, launching this fall.A preview of Ralph Lauren Home's new Canyon Road collection, which debuts in fall 2025. By the time a silver tiered platter of miniature cakes had arrived, new friendships had been cemented, business advice traded, collaborations discussed, and New York–based designer Monique Gibson joked that she and Dimorestudio’s Britt Moran, who had only just met, would get married right there in the courtyard. With a chance to sit down during one of the busiest weeks of the year, dinner guests had no doubt heeded one bit of advice from Lauren’s remarks, that they “learn from each other, teach each other, and hear each other.”

In brief: If you think Facebook has strayed far from its roots as a platform that connected friends and family, you're not alone. Even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shares this view. He also considered purging every friend from users' accounts in 2022 and having them start from scratch. Zuckerberg was on the witness stand on Monday to defend Meta against a case brought by the FTC in 2022. The agency alleges the company created a market-dominating monopoly when it bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, thereby violating US competition laws. The FTC wants to break up Meta by spinning off one of these apps. The government argues that Meta attracting 3.3 billion users to its platforms is a result of lack of reasonable alternatives. When asked about Facebook's focus moving away from connecting with friends and family to news, groups, and other third-party content, Zuckerberg admitted that, "It's the case that over time, the 'interest' part of that has gotten built out more than the 'friend' part." "(Users are) connected to a lot more groups and other kinds of things. The 'friend' part has gone down quite a bit, but it's still something we care about," he added. The Facebook feed, once filled with posts and images from people you know, is now an algorithmic sea of sponsored content, group posts, and other recommendations from various pages and accounts. In Zuckerberg's words, the feed "has turned into more of a broad discovery and entertainment space." The hearing also revealed that Zuckerberg had a "crazy idea" in 2022 that sounds like it would have been universally hated: wiping everyone's friend connections. // Related Stories Zuckerberg was worried about Facebook's reputation in 2022. Apps like TikTok had become more culturally relevant, especially among young people, while Facebook was, and often still is, seen as the social media site for "old people," which seems to cover anyone over 30. Zuckerberg proposed a radical solution in an internal email at the time, revealed by the government during the hearing. "Option 1. Double down on Friending," he wrote. "One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone's graphs and having them start again." Graphs in this case refers to friend connections. Also read: Silicon Valley crosswalks hacked to play fake AI voices of Musk and Zuckerberg Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, was unsure about the plan. "I'm not sure Option #1 in your proposal (Double-down on Friending) would be viable given my understanding of how vital the friend use case is to IG [Instagram]," he wrote. Zuckerberg replied with, "Do you have a sense of how much work it would be to convert profiles to a follow model?" Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook never followed through with his plans for a mass unfriending, which is probably a good thing. Facebook is aware that many users miss the days when the platform was all about connecting with others. The company announced last month that "the magic of friends has fallen away," and it would therefore be introducing several so-called "OG" Facebook experiences throughout the year. The first of these is a new Friends tab, which will show all your friends' posts, stories, reels, and birthdays. Friend requests will also be under this section. Masthead: Anthony Quintano

Dune Awakening has been delayed from its intended May 15 release date, pushed back by just under a month to June 10. This comes following feedback from its closed beta testers, who have led Funcom conclude it needs "a bit more time to cook". Read more

Pre-orders opening soon.After it was revealed as a launch title in the recent Switch 2 Direct, you might have been wondering how much Hazelight's Split Fiction will set you back on the upcoming Nintendo console. Well, EA has finally spilled the beans.In a new blog post, EA confirmed that Split Fiction will launch at a planned price of $49.99 — putting the Switch 2 version in line with the game's wider console launch earlier this year. What's more, the studio announced that pre-orders for the co-op adventure will be opening on 24th April.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

In Brief Posted: 9:12 AM PDT · April 15, 2025 Image Credits:Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images OpenAI is reportedly developing its own X-like social media platform OpenAI is building its own X-like social media network, according to a new report from The Verge. The project is still in the early stages, but there’s an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT’s image generation that contains a social feed. The report states that it’s unknown if OpenAI plans to launch the social network as a standalone app or if it plans to integrate it within the ChatGPT app. With this new social network, OpenAI would be taking on Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s social platforms, Facebook and Instagram. The new app would also allow OpenAI to access real-time data to train its AI models, something that both X and Meta already have. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly been privately asking outsiders for feedback about the social network. At this point, it’s not clear whether the project will ever launch publicly, but the existence of a prototype shows that OpenAI is looking to expand beyond its current offerings. Topics

Interviews The Electric State: Joel Behrens (VFX Supervisor) & Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard (Animation Supervisor) – Digital Domain By Vincent Frei - 15/04/2025 In 2018, Joel Behrens discussed Digital Domain‘s work on Ant-Man and the Wasp. He later contributed to Morbius and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now, he walks us through a very different kind of project: The Electric State. Back in 2022, Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard told us about Digital Domain’s work on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. She then worked on Secret Invasion, and today, she returns to discuss her latest project: The Electric State. How did you and Digital Domain get involved on this show? Joel Behrens: Matthew Butler was brought in to talk with the Russo Brothers very early on before the project was with Netflix, and brought me on. We obviously wanted to take on a big part of the show and decided to do some preliminary testing on our mocap stage to show how these characters might interact in the world of the film. From there we got the award and moved forward with character designing and builds. How was the collaboration with the Russo Brothers and VFX Supervisor Matthew Butler? Joel Behrens: Matthew and I have worked together for many years, so working with him was great as usual. This was the first time I worked with the Russo Brothers for me, and I felt like we had a fantastic collaboration on this film. I was able to go into AGBO often for reviews and meetings throughout the entire post-production run. They were always very receptive to ideas, and I enjoyed the experience of reviewing our work with them on a regular basis. Obviously, it was a very large movie in terms of scale and scope, and they always had a pretty clear vision for what they wanted. What are the sequences made by Digital Domain? Joel Behrens: We worked on quite a few throughout the film. Cosmo’s first appearance with Michelle, Fort Hull robot battlefield graveyard, The Mine sequence, The Exclusion zone and traveling through the Ex to the mall, Arriving at the mall and Mr. Peanut’s intro, all of Happyland and the haunted house, and the epilogue back at the mall. Can you walk us through the design process for the main robots such as Cosmo, Herman, The Marshall, and Mr. Peanut? What were the core ideas you wanted to convey through their appearance and movements? Joel Behrens: All the bots had their own sets of challenges and goals that we went through. Cosmo, from an overall design point, was probably the easier of them since his overall look and silhouette was pulled directly from Simon’s book. We still took great care in Cosmo, as well as the rest of the bots, to try to ground them in reality as much as we could. We studied modern day robotics, and how the structure and the joints are put together. We wanted them to have realistic gears, servos, motors, pistons, actuators, etc. We tried to infuse these bots with as much believability as we could from the materials we chose to use, to the structural components that allowed them to move with an acceptable range of motion. Herman had a unique challenge of creating a retro-futuristic domed screen for his head. The desire was to evoke the feeling of old CRT television technology with the RGB pixels under glass, while including some modern touches of being able to essentially use it like a modern LCD screen with the ability to create whatever facial expressions and graphic elements we wanted. The Marshall went through a few design changes. Initially drawn up to have a cowboy aesthetic, he was eventually brought in line with the rest of the “drones” in the film. A big part of that was mirroring the iconic headset that is pulled from the book as the actual heads on the drones to try to reinforce to the audience that these were being controlled by humans. Mr. Peanut obviously has a well-known look and design to work from. The thought behind his build was that he was some sort of mascot robot for the company. He was a somewhat simpler robot that had a sort of latex shell that has not aged well, around an interior robotic structure — like the mid to late 80’s animatronics from Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza that were made to entertain kids. How did you approach the animation of each of these robots to ensure they had distinct personalities? Were there specific inspirations or references that helped guide their animation? Liz Bernard: When you begin with this idea of animating these characters to look “robotic,” that could mean almost anything, and in a show with this many unique characters, it doesn’t even always mean the same thing from ‘bot to ‘bot. I’ve always loved this concept that physicality drives personality, that those two things are irrevocably linked. So, we started out by studying each robot’s body structure to figure out what each bot could and couldn’t do: some of them were on wheels, others were bipedal but had limited joints that could only rotate in one axis, some had faces, some didn’t, others were suspended from the ceiling, etc. A great example of this is that our piano-playing Tacobot was, naturally, shaped like a hardshell taco that came to a sharp point where his butt would be, and thus he couldn’t really sit on a bench at the piano. So we had to have him stand at the piano instead, which meant that it made sense for him to dance and sway as he was playing: a little character detail that added extra sparkle and life to his performance. We also started to think about the timeline of when these characters would have been built: Mr. Peanut and Popfly are more vintage and clunky, whereas Herman is a little more advanced tech with his screen face. That allowed us to make a rough timeline of when each of our characters would have been built, and that impacted how we felt they should move and behave as well. With all of that in mind, in the summer of 2023, we spent some time creating a “four-pack” of different movement styles per main character to pitch to Joe and Anthony. The styles ranged from stiff and clunky to smoother and more natural, so that the directors could choose which style they liked best for each character. That early effort established the hero ‘bots like the Marshall and Cosmo, but we still had dozens of background characters to flesh out for the Exclusion Zone and the Mall. For those, I assigned out two or three robots per animator and asked them to use their imaginations and put their own personality into some longer animation clips that we could use throughout the Mall. What we got out of that was this really organic mix of styles and distinct personalities, and when we put them all together in the mall, it was magic. Cosmo and Herman are very different in terms of function and personality. What unique challenges did you face animating these two characters, and how did you solve them? Liz Bernard: Cosmo is the heart of the film and the book, and he needed to be able to do a lot both physically and emotionally. His feet were huge, and his lollipop head was absolutely enormous, giving him a top- and bottom-heavy silhouette with spindly little limbs, and hands based on the old school white gloves used in classic cartoons. This odd anatomy gave his movements a kind of clown-shoe-shuffling dodder that was quite charming once we worked out the kinks in the mechanics of his boots. His white hands were the brightest part of his body, and naturally drew the eye, so hand posing was critically important. And, of course, it’s tough when you have a character with a giant smiley face permanently painted on to have him emote pathos, sadness, determination, and depth. With a character like this, restraint is important. Context tells a lot of the story, and the audience knows what a character might be thinking about without us knocking them over the head with it. Herman was at the other end of the spectrum in some respects. He is loud, sarcastic, confident, and most importantly, he can talk. His body was built to lift and move things, and we put a lot of time into making sure his joints were functional and could support the weight he was expected to carry around (in all his different size iterations). Because of that contrasting lightness in his humor and personality, we gave Herman a little bit of extra spring in his step (both figuratively and literally), and a touch of swagger. His banter with Keats is often deadpan, so there were also moments when it was important to dial back the movement and let the comic timing play out in stillness. As we developed Herman’s pixelated face, our Rigging department gave us the capability to project images onto it, and although we used that feature very sparingly to ensure that he stayed on model, we got some funny moments out of it. The Marshall has a more humanoid form compared to the others. What considerations did you take into account to make sure it felt both robotic yet expressive in its movements? Liz Bernard: We started with motion capture for most of the Marshall’s performances, and the performer played the character with a touch of cowboy swagger, which suited Giancarlo’s vocal performance. From there, it was up to us in animation to adjust the movements to make his body feel heavier, his joints stiffer, and his range of motion a bit limited by rust and disrepair. Giancarlo played the Marshall’s voice and face with a quiet professionalism and dignity even though his drone was a built-to-task bot-killing machine. When we animated him, we were usually looking for a balance between those two things: the restraint of the man controlling the drone, and the immense strength and ruthless violence his heavy drone body was clearly capable of. Mr. Peanut has such a quirky design. Can you share the creative process behind his look, and how his animations helped to bring out his character traits? Liz Bernard: This character was maybe the most challenging one in our roster of hero characters. We had a clear silhouette to maintain and specific features like the top hat, cane, spats, and monocle because we were basing him on a real corporate mascot that is instantly recognizable in North America. He was one of the older ‘bots in the world of the Electric State, a savvy and inspiring politician, and the founder of this “oasis of safety” in the desert. We realized that if we kept Mr. Peanut as a solid peanut shell (as he is in the corporate mascot), his body would be too stiff, and we would be forced to teeter-totter him around like a child playing with an action figure; not exactly the dignity that this character deserved. To avoid the totter, we separated his head from his body and sliced off his butt so that we could swivel it like hips to help him move around without breaking that all-important peanut shell silhouette. The resulting stiffness in his walk worked perfectly with his iconic cane and with the slightly elderly warble that Woody Harrelson gave to the character in his performance. Mr. Peanut’s face was a unique challenge, too. As they say, “the eyes are the window into the soul,” and we knew from Woody’s voice that this character had a lot of soul. Even though Mr. Peanut’s eyelids and eyebrows were simplified and non-deforming, the eye animation we developed for him was fundamentally human: long gazes, quick darts when he felt threatened, blinks to punctuate dialogue and bump up the humor, etc. The mouth was another matter, however. As Joel mentioned, the shell of Mister Peanut was meant to be a metal endoskeleton covered in a layer of thick rubbery latex, so we started out by making a whole batch of rubbery blend shapes similar to how we would approach a normal fleshy human face. However, too much articulation in his lips while speaking meant that he started to look like a character in an animated feature, and that look didn’t fit into the gritty world we had built with all of the other bots. After some experimentation and research, we settled on the somewhat dilapidated classic animatronics from the 80s/90s, which meant that we kept restricting and removing blend shapes until we were down from about eighty to six. Less is sometimes a whole lot more. Was there a specific moment or sequence in the film where animating the robots felt particularly challenging or rewarding for you and your team? Liz Bernard: One of the most beautiful and understated scenes we animated was an intimate one in the car between Michelle and Cosmo after they escaped from her deadbeat foster dad’s house. Cosmo can only speak in these canned kid Cosmo doll expressions (e.g., “the solar system’s gone haywire!”) when he’s trying to communicate with Michelle. He is not fully used to his new robot form either, and yet he finds a way to overcome his own physical limitations, his weird body, his inability to say what he wants to say, and he manages to tell her what she needs to know. We had good acting reference from Devyn, the stand-in actor who played Cosmo on set with Millie, but editorial changes and other adjustments to the acting beat meant that we started to veer away from that performance in the details. We used pantomime and subtle body language — particularly carefully timed head movements — to steer the conversation and develop the empathy and chemistry with Michelle needed for that scene to work. This film explores themes about humanity and technology, and how those ideas intersect. What’s more relatedly human than figuring out a way to communicate with another person, even when the language is not there? I love that scene because Cosmo shows that he can be interpretive and creative; he is so human in that moment. Tricky question, out of all the robots in The Electric State, which one is your personal favorite, and why? Joel Behrens: That’s a hard one, there are so many. I think, for me, it’s Cosmo. I was a big fan of the book before, and I was fortunate enough to be involved in bringing him to life on the screen. I love the character that Simon created in the book, and I think the life and soul that Liz and her team put into his performance really cements him as my favorite. Liz Bernard: I’m going to do a top three because it’s too hard to choose: Herman for his sarcasm, Cosmo for his charm, and Perplexo for his bombast (plus, it was a geeky childhood dream come true to work on a character voiced by the great Hank Azaria). The Haunted Amusement Park has such a unique and eerie feel. How did you approach the design and VFX work to make the park come to life, especially with the blend of horror and nostalgia? Joel Behrens: Happyland was a pretty incredible set to go to every day for a couple weeks. The production design team did an amazing job of turning an Atlanta water park parking lot into this retro fun fair environment. Honestly, we didn’t have to do much. The set was pretty much fully built and for the exteriors we did some minor environment extensions, some fx fog and smoke, and added all of our scavenger bots, of course. For the interior of the haunted house, the set was built for principal photography with full scale tesla coils with LED’s in the core of them to give us our interactive light on the environment and actors, which we later replaced with the crackling blue lightning. However, new choreography and a revised scene was created during additional photography that necessitated us building the whole environment in cg to complete the Mister Peanut and Marshall fight. The Mall Sequence appears to be a huge moment in the film. What were the key elements you focused on to ensure the mall’s scale and its deserted nature were effectively conveyed through VFX? Joel Behrens: The interiors of the mall were, once again, some brilliant production design from Dennis Gassner and his team. We took over a large portion of an essentially abandoned mall in Atlanta. The interior was decorated beautifully, so we had to augment very, very little. For the exterior, we used the footprint of the actual Atlanta mall as a base which had a partially dressed facade and parking lot, and did a lot of environment extension and matte painting combined with footage that was shot in Utah by our splinter unit for the deeper bg mesas and desert. For wider establishing shots of the mall when our heroes first come upon it, we placed a 3D version of our mall and surroundings along with digital matte painting extension from our outstanding environment department led by Juan Pablo Allgeier into the bg plates shot in and around Moab, Utah. The Walk Across the Exclusion Zone desert feels like a desolate yet fascinating location. What kind of challenges did you face in creating such a barren, expansive environment, and how did you use VFX to enhance its storytelling potential? Joel Behrens: That was a fun environment to build out. It was a great mix of practical plates, re-projected photography on geometry, digital matte painting, and full cg builds of terrain. We shot the VW bus with our actors on a large gimbal since they were being carried by Herman 20 on his shoulder. We would end up replacing the VW to add reflections/shadows/light interaction, and went full CG for everything on some of the wider shots we couldn’t get on the bluescreen stage. JP and his enviro team then built various pieces of desert terrain and background mesas along with the incredible giant dead robot skeleton we walk through at the beginning of the scene. How did you collaborate with the director and production team to ensure the environments felt cohesive with the tone and emotional beats of the story? Joel Behrens: The directors and production designer had a pretty clear vision for the design from the start, which stayed very true to the original source material. The practical set builds that Dennis and his team built were really beautiful and helped ground us in that world. We took our cues from that and really tried to maintain the look that Simon had created for the book. Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of? Joel Behrens: Looking back, I’m most proud of how our visual effects helped create such a compelling and immersive world that truly brought the unique, dystopian atmosphere of Simon’s book to life. I’m very proud of our team for managing that many assets so well and all the work that was put into the characters. I think our characters played a pivotal role in communicating the emotional weight of the story, holding their own with the human actors, and that’s something I’m really proud of. How long have you worked on this show? Joel Behrens: It ended up being a little over 2.5 years for me from pre-production, shoot, and through post. What’s the VFX shots count? Joel Behrens: 857 shots finaled, and worked on a little over 1000. What is your next project? Joel Behrens: Onto another exciting project, but unfortunately can’t share what it is yet. Liz Bernard: Joel and I are keeping the party going and working together again on the next one, a sci-fi feature film. We can’t say more right now. A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Digital Domain: Dedicated page about The Electric State in Digital Domain website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025