Cities with domes on top of them are usually associated with science fiction, but one Israeli scientist – Professor Alexander Bolonkin – says they are feasible. Not only that – domes, made out of thin space-age film, reinforced with stones, pebbles, and concrete, can protect a city from nuclear fallout.

A dome like that would be very useful in places like Japan, in the wake of the nuclear incidents the country has experienced. It could also be very useful in places like Sderot, a constant target for rockets fired by Gaza Arab terrorists. And, the dome could even guarantee a warm and pleasant environment, with cities protected from the ravages of nature, all year long.

Far from being an oddball who has read one too many science fiction stories, Professor Bolonkin is a well respected scientist, who for many years worked extensively on the Russian space program. After he immigrated to the West in 1988, he was quickly snapped up by and NASA and the US Air Force research laboratories, based on his reputation for creatively solving issues faced by Russian astronauts. Now in Israel, Bolonkin is the chief scientist of the Strategic Solutions Technology Group, where he has been working on many ideas and projects that may radically change life as we know.

Among the projects Bolonkin has been working on is development of the field of Femtotechnology, which involves the manipulation of nuclear matter from nucleons (neutrons, protons), electrons, and other nuclear particles.

Bolonkin calls the resulting material “AB-Matter,” a material that would have extraordinary properties - for example, extremely high levels of strength, stiffness, and hardness, the ability to stand extreme temperatures, superconductivity, supertransparency, zero friction, etc. Currently subatomic Femtotechnology is considered theoretical by most scientists – who are still getting used to the concepts of nanotechnology, which involves the manipulation of matter on the molecular or atomic level.

Bolonkin, however, believes that development of AB-Matter is not theoretical; he has specific plans on how to do it, and once that's done, specific plans on what to do with it – namely, develop a thin film which could be quickly inflated to protect a city from all manner of death and destruction, from Kassam rockets to nuclear fallout. If such a dome had been deployed around the Fukushima nuclear plant, for example, the problems at the plant might have been more easily contained.

The dome would not be all that expensive, says Bolonkin; certainly it would cost less than missile defense systems that are now in vogue, and the protective capability of the domes – which allow establishing a controlled environment inside – would more than pay for many projects, since it would allow the reclamation of desert areas, and the establishment of safe cities even close to hostile borders.

In the event of a fallout emergency, or in advance of a major attack, domes could be spread out over a community and quickly raised with an air pump. Domes could – and should – be constructed around dangerous and sensitive installations, like power plants, and, of course, nuclear reactors.

Professor Bolonkin isn't just a world-famous scientist; he's also a hero refusenik, who in 1972 was sent to Siberia for 15 years for distributing the works of Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and for seeking to immigrate. He was released over a decade later.

He has written hundreds of scientific manuscripts, and has patented 17 inventions, some of which are considered classified and are known only to U.S. space officials. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Space Agency, Chairman of the Space Flights section, and President of the International Association of Former Soviet Political Prisoners and Victims of the Communist Regime.

“The biggest dream of my life is to find and give people immortality,” he said in a recent interview. “I am glad that I managed to discover how this goal can be accomplished. I am glad even though it will not be until the generation of our children and the future generations that this can be actually realized.”