- [Speaker] One of the highest powered nuclear research reactors in the U.S. exists (ding) right here, at MIT. So, what's it like inside? (whistling) (door opening) - [Guest] Hi, I'm here for the tour? - Awesome, let's get you signed in. (ding) (whistling) (upbeat strumming) Take this.
- [Guest] What is this? (ding)
- It's a dosimeter. - [Guest] Cool, okay thanks.
- No problem. - Sarah, they'll all set. - Hey!
- [Guest] Hey Sarah. (whistling) (door opening) (ding) (switch flipping)
- [Guest] Wait, what's that? - Oh, that's my light that I turn on to let everybody know that I'm in the lab. - [Guest] Oh cool, okay. - So what you might not realize is that the reactor has
very specialized parts and if something breaks, or if something needs to be replaced as preventative maintenance, we can't just get a catalog
and order a new part. We have to actually
rebuild it from scratch. So this is why we need
machine shops here on site. - [Guest] So this is where you do that. - [Sarah] Yes.
- [Guest] Hi P.J. - Hi.
(ding) (upbeat music) - I got started when I was
a freshman in undergrad. (laughs lightly) I was hired as a part-time student operator, and I stayed through all my years at MIT and through grad school at MIT, and now I work full-time here. Alright, let's keep going.
- [Guest] Okay. (whistling) (guitar strumming) - [Guest] Why is there
this big imposing door? - So that the containment
building is airtight. And this way, any air that is
going to leave the building goes past detectors and filters to make sure that we're not
putting radioactive material into the atmosphere in Cambridge. (banging) - [Guest] So right now we are
trapped- (equipment operating) - No.
(banging) - [Guest] Okay, so this is
where the power is made, right? - No, this is a research reactor. So we don't actually
generate any electricity. We make lots of neutrons
which we use for experiments. And actually we're the
second highest power level research reactor on a
University campus in the U.S. - [Guest] How cool-
- Yeah- - [Guest] How come it's so noisy in here? - We have a lot of
instrumentation running around us. We have some radiation detectors. So there's an air monitor here, and we also have an area
monitor on the wall up there, and these help us to know what the radiation level
is around us as we work, because our body has no
way of sensing radiation. It's not something that we
can detect as human beings, so we have to have
instrumentation to help us out. - [Guest] How much is that? What does the 0.1 mean? - So, it says 0.1 right now and that's the reading in millirem/hr, which is a unit of radiation per unit time and to put things in perspective you get about one millirem
per day living in Boston from background radiation from space, and from granite rock in the ground. - [Guest] Let me get this right. We're standing 14 feet away from the core of a nuclear reactor, and the amount of radiation we're getting is the same as if we were standing on the street in Cambridge.
- [Sarah] Correct. - [Guest] How is that possible? - Concrete shielding, and I'll show you. So this is the outside of the shielding around the reactor core. - [Guest] This big cylinder
of blue thing here? - Yeah, this light blue
cylinder that you see here. And it's about five and a half feet thick concrete shielding,
that's heavy dense concrete, so it's got metal punchings in
it as well as sand and water. That makes it better
for absorbing radiation. - [Guest] So it's not regular concrete. - Yeah, it's special concrete. - [Guest] Nothing is regular
in a nuclear reactor. - No.
(light laughter) And that's where the nuclear
reactions are taking place. So the fuel is loaded
into the reactor core, and the Uranium 235 atoms are splitting, which releases some neutrons, and those get absorbed by
other Uranium 235 atoms which split and release more neutrons. So all the neutrons that we
use come from the core here. Hey Paul.
- Hey Sarah. (ding) - [Guest] So what's Paul doing Sarah? - Paul's gonna load some silicon into our silicon and
radiation facility. (ding) So one of the things that we do here at the reactor is we irradiate silicon, to be used as semi-conductors. So silicon by itself is
not a good conductor. (ding) (upbeat tones) But by irradiating it with
neutrons in our reactor we can change some of the silicon
atoms to phosphorous atoms which is called doping. We dope the silicon material so that it has a
distribution of impurities that cause it to become a semi-conductor. So semi-conductors can be used in all kinds of electronic applications, but the way that we irradiate silicon here means that we can be very precise. So the silicon that we produce here ends up in very critical applications such as airplanes and the power grid. Let's go see the reactor tub.
- [Guest] Okay let's go. (upbeat music tones) So this morning we're installing
the new salt experiment that we've been working
on for several months, and this experiment will stay in the core for 1,000 hours to be
irradiated by neutrons. - [Guest] Let's go. This is the place where the
tour is normally stopped. - Yes, that's right. - [Guest] And you're
gonna let me go past it. - Just you. - [Guest] So what do I need to wear? - So I'll show you what to do.
- [Guest] Okay. (upbeat tones) You need to grab some rubber booties and put them on your shoes. - [Guest] Now I step over here? - Yep.
- [Guest] Okay? My other shoe is still back here. - Then I get the other one?
- Yep. Anyone, there not pairs. (upbeat music tones) So we duck tape our pockets closed on the reactor tub area, because that way we can't be tempted to put objects in our pockets and lean over the core
and have them fall out. - [Guest] You don't want
stuff to fall into the core. - No, it's very difficult to
fish things out of the core and it could damage the fuel, which is a risk that we
just don't want to take. - [Guest] Has anything
ever fallen into the core? Have you ever dropped
anything in the core? - I have not dropped anything in the core. (mild laugh) Do you mind if I put this on you? - [Guest] Yep, go for it.
(mysterious tones) - [Guest] So may I ask-
(mutual mild laughter) can I take a peak in the core? - Yes, you can take a peak in the core. - [Worker] It should be closed when the grid is being closed. - [Sarah] The core is
shaped like a hexagon, and it's made up of 27 diamond shapes that fit together to make a hexagon. And each of those diamond
shapes is a fuel element. One of those diamonds is
gonna hold a cylinder, which we're using to hold a special salt that could be used in the future to cool down nuclear reactors. The reactor is a really good
tool for testing materials, because the core itself is an
extremely harsh environment that has very high levels of radiation and we can heat the experiment
to really high temperatures to really stress-test the material. - [Guest] So we're standing five feet away from an open nuclear reactor core? How are we not dead? - [Sarah] So in the core
tank we have 10 feet of water between the top of the fuel
and the top of the water level. And the purpose that that serves is to shield us from radiation while we're working in the core, and it also serves as a
reservoir for cooling. - [Guest] So 10 feet of water is enough to get the dose from
thousands of REM per second to 10 millirems per hour?
- Yep. - [Guest] That's kind of insane. - It's amazing. - [Guest] Why is water so good? - Water is really good
at absorbing neutrons. (upbeat music)(crowd) - [Guest] Success! Guess we're ready for the next step. - [Sarah] So the first thing
we do is take our gloves off. Trash?
- [Guest] Can you help me? - [Sara] Yeah.
(upbeat music tones) So this is one of our neutron beams that you can use to do
experiments outside the reactors. The neutrons come from the
reactor along this beam line and you place your experiment sample on the beam line and detectors, and you can do the experiment here. So right now Gordon is
explaining to his students how they're going to use the neutron beam for their lab class, for their experiment. And so the students can
set up their experiment here on the beam line, and then they can collect the data that they need completely
remotely from their dorm room. - [Guest] So students at MIT can actually do experiments at the reactor? - Yeah, we have a lot
of student participation here at the reactor. - [Guest] So what kind of experiments do students do with the neutron beam? - So you can calculate
the reactor's power level based on the speed that
the neutrons are traveling, you can figure out how good a material is at absorbing neutrons, and you can also figure
out the shape of molecules based on the way neutrons bounce off them. - [Guest] Hey, that's pretty awesome. - Alright, next?
- [Guest] Yes. (upbeat techno music) - This is Mike, and he's
one of the experimenters working in the hot box.
- [Guest] Hey Mike. - Hi.
(ding) - [Guest] What's you workin' on? - So what we're doing here is we're disassembling experiments that have been in the core of the reactor in this shielded box- - [Guest] So the hot box is useful for storing and handling materials that have come out of the reactor. They need to go in here because they're too
radioactive to handle close up, but we can handle them inside here because of the led
shielding in the walls here. - [Guest] How much radiation
are we talking here? - So the radiation
levels inside the hot box are about 30,000 times higher
than they are out here, and so that's why we have samples of the materials that we've taken out of the reactor inside here. But we can work on them safely
using these manipulators. - [Guest] So what's that sample? - The sample I've got there
is a piece of silicon carbide with a chromium layer on the inside. It's a potential replacement
for current reactor cladding. So we're testing it to
see how well it does under radiation and temperature, and conditions typical
for a power reactor. - [Guest] I have a question for you. - Sure.
- [Guest] Can I try? - Yes, you can!
- [Sarah] Wait, really? - Oh, of course! - I never got to do this, what is this? - Actually, we've got a
little poly vial in there. Sometimes the trickiest thing is closing the lids on the vials. (upbeat techno music) - Cool, thanks Mike, see ya! (upbeat techno music) - Hey Tom!
- Hey Sarah. (ding) - Tom's making gold
radioactive for medicine. - [Guest] Wait, what? - So, we were actually gonna be taking some gold pellets and using rabbit, insert them into the reactor into an area with a lot of neutrons, and the neutrons will
make the gold radioactive. So when the sample comes out we can then ship it to a hospital where they can inject them into a tumor in order to cause radiation damage directly to that tumor. - [Guest] Wait, what about rabbits? - So they're not real rabbits. We have these poly sample holders where we put the gold directly into. - [Guest] So you put the
gold in the rabbit and then- - So the rabbit would go
from where we inserted it, through this tube and into the reactor. And then when it's finished
it will come down the tube and out into our shielded hot cell. So when the material is radioactive, the radiation is all contained inside of our shielded area to work with. - Okay, see you Tom. Let's go to the next stop.
- [Guest] Okay. (whistling) (upbeat strumming) - So we're about to
enter the control room, and the control panel is on the right, so please try to keep on the left. - [Guest] So I shouldn't
push any buttons, right? - No. Hey guys! So this is the control room, and the most important thing in the control room is the operator, who is Sara right now. (ding) Sara is actually a student operator and Paul is the shift
supervisor currently. So right now they're working
on the start-up checklist to start the reactor back up. - [Guest] Cool! Weren't you doing something
with silicon earlier? - I was indeed. - [Guest] Have you finished?
- I finished that- - [Guest] And now you're here.
- Correct. - [Guest] Isn't it weird how one person can move from one place to another? Do you have a favorite button?
- Yes. - Which one? (mild laughter)
- This one. This is the major scram button, which I've only ever
pressed during testing. Never actually had to make a scram. It's one of our emergency
shut down buttons and it automatically drops
all the control blades in and it isolates our ventilation in case something were to get out. But I just like it because it's the big, stereotypical red button in the reactor. - [Guest] Do you know
what every single one of all of these buttons do? - Yes, some of the experimental ones... I wasn't current in my training 'cause I don't have to run the experiments but all of the regular operations buttons. (ding) (swish) - [Guest] What is high-temp
D20 reflector cleanup system? - So the reflector system with heavy water has a cleanup loop where it
flows through an iron column, and if the water gets above 50 degrees it could potentially damage
the resin in the iron column so that alarm will go off to tell you that you need to cool it down or you need to bypass it. - [Guest] What does DP-3 30 PSIG mean? - So that's one of our pressure gages for our heavy water system,
that's what the D means. It tells you reflector
system, the P is the pressure, and then 3 is just the
number to marking it. - [Guest] What's this gage do? - This is for auto control. So using this gage here, you
can set your auto control to tell the reactor this is
the power I wanna stay at, and this gives you the percent deviation. So if you're too high or low
that needle will tell you. You wanna keep it at zero. - [Guest] What's this knob? - So we have we have six
different shim blades, and you can only move one at a time. So this is to select which one you want. So right now three is selected. - [Guest] Okay?
- You can turn it and you can pick a different blade, whichever one you wanna move. - [Guest] What is this? - This is the official console clock. - [Guest] So you're a student you said? - I am a student. - [Guest] Okay, what year are you? - I am a sophomore. - [Guest] So you're a sophomore at MIT? - Yes.
- [Guest] And you are running a nuclear reactor.
- Yes. - [Guest] That's pretty freakin' awesome. So what kind of training
do you have to go through to be able to sit at this console? - So there's a lot of studying through systems manuals,
technical specifications, all the alarms and procedures, and then there's hands-on training where you come and you
sit training watches, and you'll perform practice start-ups supervised by your training supervisor. - [Guest] Okay so you passed my test, but please tell me there's a legit test you also have to pass right? - They fly in an examiner from the NRC and she'll come and she will watch me do a
start-up and a shut-down, I'll give her a tour around the facility and she'll ask me a bunch
of different questions about all our systems, and then she'll give me a written exam that covers safety procedures,
radiation protection, reactor physics, things like that. So you have to be prepared in all areas of your training for the exam? - [Guest] So did you pass? - So I have passed the exam which means I'm licensed by the government to be able to take shifts
and be on console by myself. To start up the reactor you
still need your supervisor in the control room with
you, but I can perform all of the operation duties in here alone. - Alright, thanks guys. See ya. (whistling) (upbeat strumming) (ding) - So this is looking for contamination that someone may have
gotten in containment. - [Guest] And what
happens if it's not clean, like what do you do if it says "Dirty!" - Well first it'll tell you where. So that helps if it's your
left toe or your right hand. It's usually a pretty low level so to get the contamination off think of it like dust. And so we'll use tape, we'll
have wipe with hand washing, and usually it's as simple as something on a lab coat cuff say, that somebody has been working with a contaminated sample, and we'll just take that lab coat and put it in our laundry
facility and get it clean. This looks like, you know that thing from the movie Interstellar? - Yes, I love Interstellar-
- [Guest] You know that- - [Guest] What's that-
- Tars! - [Guest] Tars-
- Yeah- - [Guest] It looks like Tars.
(eerie whistling) - [Computer] Five, four,
three, two, one, clean. Thank you.
- [Guest] Shall we go? - Yeah, let's go.
(whistling) (upbeat strumming) - So these are both backups, if that monitor were to malfunction. (upbeat music) - See ya.
- See ya. - [Guest] Okay, thanks for the tour Sarah. - No worries, there's one more
thing we have to do though, I have to get your dosimeter back. - [Guest] Oh right, yes! Here you go.
- Thank you. So it's reading, still the same. - [Guest] So okay, so wait a second. We just spent all day
inside a nuclear reactor and the radiation dose
has not changed at all. - Correct.
- [Guest] Amazing. - Thanks for coming. - [Guest] Thanks for having us. (door opening) - Come back anytime.
- [Guest] Thanks.
Nuclear engineering is such an interesting field. I really wish the stigma was lifted and more of the general public/politicians actually understood how safe the technology really is. Nuclear infrastructure would go a long way in transforming the energy industry, and as an interim solution is a lot better than coal.
I think the tsunamis in Japan a few years back really hurt the public’s perception of nuclear power
I worked on a crew that did all the access control and video for this building. Me and my buddy specifically did all the work inside the reactor area. That job was a lot of fun amd everyone that worked there were great and loved to answer any questions we had about how things worked.
She mentions they have the second most powerful research reactor in the US. The most powerful research reactor is at my Alma mater University of Missouri-Columbia (http://www.murr.missouri.edu/) Represent!
Don't mind the annyoing voice at the beginning, it stops.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing that.
Neat. I think PSU's engineering department helped them get going. For sure we helped Texas A&M on their first reactor.
PSU's is much smaller though.
So they say they use this reactor to perform ultra-high precision silicon doping. I figured microchip doping was already super-precise, what applications need precision that's higher than what's available in a chip fab?
I’m curious what type of security measures they have in place?