Inside MIT's Nuclear Reactor - By MITK12Videos
Transcript
00:01 | one of the highest powered nuclear research reactors in the | |
00:04 | U . S . Exists right here . That mitt | |
00:09 | . So what's it like inside ? Yeah . Hi | |
00:14 | . I remember the tour . Awesome . Let's get | |
00:15 | you signed in . Take this . What is this | |
00:20 | ? It's a dis emitter . Oh cool . Okay | |
00:22 | . Thanks . No problem . Sarah . They're all | |
00:24 | set . Okay . Hey , Sarah . Mhm . | |
00:29 | Mhm . Wait , what's that ? What's that ? | |
00:34 | That's my life that I turned on to let everybody | |
00:36 | know that I'm in the lab . Okay . So | |
00:39 | what you might not realize is that the reactor has | |
00:42 | very specialized parts and if something breaks or something needs | |
00:45 | to be replaced as preventative maintenance , we can't just | |
00:47 | get a catalog and order a new part . We | |
00:49 | have to actually rebuild it from scratch . So this | |
00:52 | is why we need machine shops here on site . | |
00:53 | So this is where you do that . Yes . | |
00:56 | By P . J . I got started when I | |
01:01 | was a freshman in undergrad . I was hired at | |
01:05 | this part time student operator . And I stayed through | |
01:08 | all my years at MIT and through grad school at | |
01:11 | MIT . And now I work full time here . | |
01:13 | All right , let's keep going . Okay , why | |
01:19 | is there this big imposing door ? So the containment | |
01:22 | building is air tied . And this way any air | |
01:25 | that is going to leave the building goes past detectives | |
01:29 | and filters to make sure that we're not putting radioactive | |
01:31 | material into the atmosphere in Cambridge . Yeah . So | |
01:36 | right now we are . Well , no . Okay | |
01:45 | . So this is where the power is made , | |
01:47 | right ? No , this is a research reactor . | |
01:50 | So we don't actually generate any electricity . We make | |
01:53 | lots of neutrons which we use for experiments and actually | |
01:55 | were the second highest power level research reactor on a | |
01:58 | university campus in the US . How come ? It's | |
02:01 | so noisy in here ? We have a lot of | |
02:04 | instrumentation running around us . We have some radiation detectors | |
02:09 | . So there's an air monitor here . and we | |
02:11 | also have an area monitor on the wall up there | |
02:14 | . And these help us to know what the radiation | |
02:17 | level is around us as we work because our body | |
02:20 | has no way of sensing radiation . It's not something | |
02:22 | that we can detect as human beings . So we | |
02:24 | have to have instrumentation to help us out . How | |
02:26 | much is that ? What is the .1 means ? | |
02:29 | So it says there are .1 right now and that's | |
02:31 | the reading in milligram per hour , which is a | |
02:34 | unit of radiation per unit time . And to put | |
02:37 | things in perspective , you get about one mg per | |
02:40 | day living in boston from background radiation from space and | |
02:44 | from granite rock on the ground . Let me get | |
02:46 | this straight . We're standing 14 ft away from the | |
02:50 | core of a nuclear reactor . And the amount of | |
02:53 | radiation we're getting is the same as if we were | |
02:56 | standing on the street in Cambridge . How is that | |
02:59 | possible , concrete shielding ? And I'll show you . | |
03:01 | So this is the outside of the shielding around the | |
03:05 | reactor core . This big cylinder of blue thing here | |
03:09 | . Yeah . This light blue cylinder that you see | |
03:11 | here and it's about 5.5 ft thick concrete shielding . | |
03:16 | That's heavy , dense concrete . So it's got metal | |
03:18 | punching in it as well as sand and water . | |
03:20 | That makes it better for absorbing radiation . So it's | |
03:22 | not regular . Yeah , it's special concrete . Nothing | |
03:25 | is regular in the nuclear area . No , that's | |
03:28 | where the nuclear reactions are taking place . So the | |
03:31 | fuel is loaded into the reactor core and the uranium | |
03:34 | 2 35 atoms are splitting which releases some neutrons . | |
03:37 | And those get absorbed by other uranium 2 35 atoms | |
03:40 | which split and release more neutrons . So all the | |
03:42 | neutrons that we use come from the core here . | |
03:45 | Hey paul . Uh So what paul doing sir ? | |
03:50 | I was gonna load some silicon into our silicon and | |
03:53 | radiation facility . So one of the things that we | |
03:57 | do here at the reactor is we irradiate silicon to | |
04:00 | be used as semiconductors . So silicon by itself is | |
04:04 | not a good conductor . But by irradiating it with | |
04:10 | neutrons in our reactor , we can change some of | |
04:13 | the silicon atoms to phosphorus atoms , which is called | |
04:16 | doping . So we dope the silicon material so that | |
04:19 | it has a distribution of impurities that cause it to | |
04:22 | become a semiconductor . So semiconductors can be used in | |
04:25 | all kinds of electronic applications . But the way that | |
04:28 | we radiate silicon here , it means that we can | |
04:30 | be very precise . So the silicon that we produce | |
04:33 | here ends up in very critical applications such as airplanes | |
04:37 | and the power grid . Let's go see the reactor | |
04:39 | top . Mm . So this morning we're installing the | |
04:49 | new salt experiment that we've been working on for several | |
04:51 | months . And this experiment will stay in the core | |
04:54 | for 1000 hours to be irradiated by neutrons . Let's | |
04:57 | go . This is the place where the tours normally | |
05:00 | stop . Yes , that's right . And you're gonna | |
05:02 | let me go pass it . Just you . So | |
05:04 | what do I need to , where do I need | |
05:05 | to wear ? So I'll show you what to do | |
05:10 | . You need to , you need to grab some | |
05:12 | rubber booties and put them on your shoes . Mm | |
05:15 | . Mhm . Okay , now I step over here | |
05:18 | . Yeah , hanging to my other shoe is still | |
05:20 | down here , yep . And then I get the | |
05:23 | other one , Yep . Anyone , they're not fair | |
05:26 | . Mhm , mhm , mhm , mhm . So | |
05:37 | we got tape our pockets closed on the reactor top | |
05:39 | area . Because that way we can be tempted to | |
05:42 | put objects in our pockets and then lean over the | |
05:44 | core and have them pull out . So , you | |
05:47 | know , it's very difficult to fish things out of | |
05:50 | the core and it could damage the fuel . Which | |
05:52 | is a risk that we just don't want to take | |
05:54 | . Yeah . Has anything ever fallen into the court | |
05:57 | ? Have you ever dropped anything ? I've not dropped | |
05:59 | anything in the core . Do you mind if I | |
06:03 | put this on you ? Uh can I take a | |
06:10 | peek in the court ? Yes , you can take | |
06:11 | a peek in the car . The core is shaped | |
06:18 | like a hexagon and it's made up of 27 diamond | |
06:21 | shapes that fit together to make a hexagon . And | |
06:24 | each of those diamond shapes is a fuel element . | |
06:27 | One of those diamonds is going to hold a cylinder | |
06:29 | , which we're using to hold a special salt that | |
06:32 | could be used in the future to cool down nuclear | |
06:34 | reactors . The reactor is a really good tool protesting | |
06:36 | materials because the core itself is an extremely harsh environment | |
06:40 | . There's very high levels of radiation and we can | |
06:42 | heat the experiment to really high temperatures to really stress | |
06:45 | test the material . So we're standing five ft away | |
06:48 | from an open nuclear reactor core . How are we | |
06:52 | not done ? So , in the cortex , we | |
06:53 | have 10 ft of water between the top of the | |
06:56 | fuel and the top of the water level . And | |
06:59 | the purpose of that serves is to shield us from | |
07:01 | radiation when we're working in the court . And it | |
07:03 | also serves as a reservoir for cooling . So 10 | |
07:06 | ft of water is enough to get the dose From | |
07:10 | thousands of room for second to 10 mg/h , yep | |
07:14 | . It's kind of insane . It's amazing why is | |
07:17 | water so good . What is really good at absorbing | |
07:20 | neutrons ? Mhm . Yeah . Fatah that's what would | |
07:26 | be success . I guess we're ready for the next | |
07:29 | step . So the first thing we do is take | |
07:30 | the gloves off . Yeah . Mhm . Mhm mm | |
07:39 | . Yeah . So this is one of our neutron | |
07:50 | beams that you can use to do experiments outside the | |
07:53 | reactors . The neutrons come from the reactor along this | |
07:55 | beam line when you place your experiment sample on the | |
07:58 | beam line and detectors and you can do the experiment | |
08:01 | here . So right now Gordon's explaining to students how | |
08:04 | they're going to use the neutron beam for their lab | |
08:06 | class for their experiment . And so the students can | |
08:09 | set up their experiment here on the green line and | |
08:12 | then they can collect the data that they need completely | |
08:14 | remotely from their dorm room . So students at MIT | |
08:17 | can actually do experiments at the reactor . Yeah yeah | |
08:20 | . We have a lot of student participation here at | |
08:22 | the reactor . So what kind of experiments do students | |
08:25 | do with the neutron ? So you can calculate the | |
08:27 | reactor's power level based on the speed that the neutrons | |
08:30 | are traveling . You can figure out how good a | |
08:32 | material is that absorbing neutrons and you can also figure | |
08:35 | out the shape of molecules based on the way neutrons | |
08:38 | pants off them . Hey , that's pretty awesome . | |
08:40 | All right , next . So this is mike and | |
08:48 | he's one of the experimenters working in the hotbox . | |
08:50 | Like what you working on . Uh So what we're | |
08:54 | doing here is we're disassembling experiments that have been in | |
08:59 | the core of the reactor in this shielded box . | |
09:02 | So the hotbox is useful for uh storing and handling | |
09:09 | materials that have come out of the reactor . They | |
09:11 | need to go in here because there to radioactivity handle | |
09:15 | close up but we can handle them inside here because | |
09:19 | of the lead shielding in the walls here . How | |
09:23 | much radiation are we talking here ? So the radiation | |
09:25 | levels inside the hot box are about 30,000 times higher | |
09:30 | than they are out here . And so that's why | |
09:32 | we have samples and the materials that we've taken out | |
09:34 | of the reactor inside here . But we can work | |
09:37 | on them safely using these initiators . So what's that | |
09:41 | sample ? The sample I've got there is a piece | |
09:45 | of silicon carbide with a chromium layer on the inside | |
09:50 | and it's a potential replacement for current reactor cladding . | |
09:57 | So we're testing it to see how well it does | |
10:00 | under radiation and temperature and conditions typical for power reactor | |
10:07 | . I have a question for you sure . Yes | |
10:10 | , you can wait . Really ? Oh of course | |
10:13 | I never get to do this sort of thing actually | |
10:15 | . You know we've got a little polly violin there | |
10:17 | . Sometimes . The trickiest thing is closing the lips | |
10:20 | on the vials . This is fun . Mhm . | |
10:35 | Thanks . Yeah . Mhm . Mhm . Mhm . | |
10:47 | Hey tom . Sarah tom's making gold radioactive for medicine | |
10:54 | . Wait what ? So we were actually going to | |
10:57 | be taking some gold pellets and using rabbit uh insert | |
11:01 | them into the reactor into an area of a lot | |
11:03 | of neutrons . Uh And the neutrons will make the | |
11:06 | gold radioactive . So when the sample comes out we | |
11:08 | can then ship it to a hospital where they can | |
11:11 | inject them into a tumor in order to cause radiation | |
11:14 | damage directly to that too . So wait , what | |
11:16 | about rabbits ? So they're not real rabbits . We | |
11:19 | have these poly sample holders where we put the gold | |
11:22 | directly into . So you put the gold in the | |
11:24 | rabbit and the rabbit would go from where we inserted | |
11:27 | it through this too and into the reactor . And | |
11:33 | then when it's finished it will come down the tube | |
11:35 | and out into our shielded hot South . So when | |
11:39 | the material's radioactive , the radiation is all contained inside | |
11:43 | of our shielded area to work with . Okay . | |
11:44 | See you tom let's go to the next stop . | |
11:47 | Okay . Mhm . So we're about to enter the | |
11:52 | control room and the control panel is on the right | |
11:54 | so please try to keep on the left so I | |
11:57 | shouldn't push any buttons . Right ? No . Hey | |
12:00 | guys . So this is the control room and uh | |
12:05 | the most important thing in the control room is the | |
12:07 | operator who is Sarah Right now . Sarah is actually | |
12:11 | a student operator . And paul is the shift supervisor | |
12:15 | currently . So right now they're working on the startup | |
12:18 | checklist to start the reactor back up . Cool . | |
12:21 | Weren't you doing something with silicon earlier ? I was | |
12:25 | indeed . But you finished I finished that and now | |
12:28 | you're here , correct . Isn't it weird how one | |
12:31 | person can move from one place to another ? Do | |
12:33 | you have a favorite button ? Yes . This is | |
12:39 | the major scram button which I've only ever pressed during | |
12:42 | testing . Never actually had two major scram . It's | |
12:45 | one of our emergency shutdown buttons and it automatically drops | |
12:48 | all the control blades in and it isolates are ventilation | |
12:51 | in case something were to get out . But I | |
12:53 | just like it because it's the big stereotypical red button | |
12:56 | in the reactor . Do you know what every single | |
12:59 | one of all of these buttons do ? Yes . | |
13:06 | Some of the experimental ones . Uhh I was uncovered | |
13:10 | in my training because I don't have to run the | |
13:12 | experiments . But all of the regular operations with . | |
13:15 | Mhm . Mhm . What does high temp d to | |
13:20 | a reflector cleanup system ? So the reflector system with | |
13:24 | heavy water has a cleanup loop where it flows through | |
13:27 | an ion column . And if the water gets above | |
13:29 | 50 degrees it could potentially damage the resin in the | |
13:32 | iron columns . So that alarm will go off to | |
13:34 | tell you that you need to cool down or you | |
13:36 | need to bypass . What does dP 3 30 P | |
13:39 | . S . I . G . Me . So | |
13:41 | that's one of our pressure gauges for our heavy water | |
13:45 | system . That's what the D . Means . That | |
13:46 | tells you reflect your system , the peas pressure and | |
13:49 | then three is just the number two . Marketing it | |
13:50 | what's this gauge do ? This is for auto control | |
13:53 | . So using this gauge here you can set your | |
13:55 | auto control to tell the reactor this is the power | |
13:58 | I want to stay at and this gives you the | |
14:00 | percent deviation . So if you're too high or low | |
14:03 | , that needle will tell you you want to keep | |
14:05 | it at zero . What's this knob ? So we | |
14:07 | have six different shin blades and you can only move | |
14:11 | one at a time . So this is to select | |
14:13 | which one you want right now . Three is selected | |
14:15 | . Okay ? You can turn it and you can | |
14:18 | pick a differently , just whichever one you want to | |
14:20 | move . What is this ? This is the official | |
14:25 | consul oclock . So you're a student , you say | |
14:28 | , okay , what year are you ? I am | |
14:30 | a software . So you're a sophomore at MIT and | |
14:33 | you are running a nuclear reactor . That's pretty freaking | |
14:37 | awesome . Okay , so what kind of training do | |
14:40 | you have to go through to be able to sit | |
14:42 | at this council ? So there's a lot of studying | |
14:46 | through systems , manuals , technical specifications , all the | |
14:49 | alarms and procedures . And then there's hands on training | |
14:52 | where you come and you sit training watches and you'll | |
14:54 | perform practice startups supervised by your training supervisor . Okay | |
14:59 | ? So you passed my test but please tell me | |
15:01 | there's a legit test you also have to pass . | |
15:04 | Right ? They applying an examiner . It was um | |
15:08 | examiner from the NRC and she'll come and she will | |
15:11 | watch me do a start up in a shutdown . | |
15:13 | Uh She'll I'll give her a tour around the facility | |
15:16 | and she'll ask me a bunch of different questions about | |
15:18 | our systems and then she'll give me a written exam | |
15:20 | that covers safety procedures , um radiation protection , reactor | |
15:25 | , physics , things like that . So you have | |
15:26 | to be prepared in all areas of your training for | |
15:29 | the exam . So did you pass ? So I | |
15:32 | have passed the exam which means I'm licensed by the | |
15:34 | government to be able to take shifts and be on | |
15:36 | console by myself um to start up the reactor . | |
15:40 | You still need your supervisor in the control room with | |
15:42 | you but I can perform all the operation duties in | |
15:45 | here . All right thanks guys . You okay ? | |
16:02 | So this is looking for contamination that someone may have | |
16:07 | gotten forward with containment . And what happens if it's | |
16:10 | not clean ? Like what do you do it ? | |
16:12 | This is dirty . Okay . Well first we'll tell | |
16:15 | you where . So that helps right if it's your | |
16:18 | left toe or you're right right hand it's usually pretty | |
16:21 | little level . So to get the contamination off think | |
16:24 | of it like dust and so we'll use tape we'll | |
16:27 | have like hand washing and usually it's as simple as | |
16:31 | something on a lab coat cuff to say that somebody | |
16:34 | has been working with the contaminated sample and we'll just | |
16:37 | take that lab coat and put it in our laundry | |
16:39 | facility and get clean . This looks like you know | |
16:41 | that thing from the movie here seller ? Yes . | |
16:43 | I love it . Yeah . What's the stars ? | |
16:46 | Stars ? Yeah , It looks like cars . Mhm | |
16:51 | . 5432 one Cruz . Okay . Can we go | |
16:59 | ? Yeah , that's good . These are both backups | |
17:07 | that monitor where the malfunction . Thanks for the tourists | |
17:18 | . Uh No worries . There's one more thing we | |
17:20 | have to do though . I have to get your | |
17:21 | dosimeter back . All right . Yes . Here you | |
17:24 | go . Thank you . So , it's reading still | |
17:29 | the same . So . Okay . So wait a | |
17:31 | second . We just spent all day inside a nuclear | |
17:35 | reactor and the radiation dose has not changed at all | |
17:39 | , correct ? Amazing . Thanks for coming . Thanks | |
17:43 | for having us . Mhm . Yeah . Come back | |
17:47 | anytime . Thanks . Yeah . Yeah . |
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