Mar 22, 2017 08:00:00

A valuable movie shot with GoPro at the moment of starting and stopping the reactor is on sale

The

Center for Radiation Science and Technology (RSEC) was established by Pennsylvania State University to manage nuclear research facilities in Pennsylvania, such as nuclear reactors, gamma-ray facilities, and radiation measurement resources. The ' Breazeale Nuclear Reactor (BNR)' is one of the oldest nuclear reactors in the world operated by RSEC and was built for research purposes. The movie that was done is released.

Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: 60th Anniversary
http://www.engr.psu.edu/rsec60/

The BNR is the oldest nuclear reactor in the United States, which went into operation in 1955, and has undergone numerous refurbishments. Since this reactor was developed entirely for research and educational purposes, not for power generation, it can be used by students, researchers, other research institutes, government officials, interest groups, etc. for research purposes. We have obtained a driver's license from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a research reactor.

The following movie shows how BNR is started, the output is increased to 500kW / 1MW, and then stopped. The 'boom' sound in the movie seems to be the sound generated from the nitrogen pump installed in the water. Also, pay attention to the volume when playing, as the volume is loud from the start of the movie to 1 minute 56 seconds and after 8 minutes.

Breazeale Nuclear Reactor Start up, 500kW, 1MW, and Shut Down --YouTube


Since the BNR is a research reactor, it is compact enough to fit in a cube with a side of 2 meters, unlike the reactors used for power generation. Of course, because it is compact, the output is very small compared to a nuclear reactor for power generation.

The GoPro HERO5 was used for shooting, and dive and dive in a clear liquid. This liquid is 'water' used as a moderator, and is controlled by a particle filter and an ion exchanger to keep it clean at all times. In addition, it seems that all the water in the bathtub is replaced once a week, and water quality management is thorough.

You can see the fuel rods of the reactor in front of you.

The reactor started operation around 1 minute and 40 seconds in the movie. It seems that the movie is being played at 6x speed from here.

The fuel rod part emits pale light. This is a phenomenon called ' Cherenkov radiation ', which is seen when nuclear reactions occur in a chain and are in a critical state.

The output of the reactor will be 500kW around 2 minutes and 13 seconds of the movie. There isn't much change in appearance, but ...

You can see something like bubbles in the red frame. According to Alex Landless, who released the movie, nucleate boiling starts on the fuel rods when the output exceeds 200 kW, but this nucleate boiling does not last so long. Also, since BNR is not a nuclear reactor for power generation, its output is low, and the central part of the fuel rods only rises to about 520 degrees. In addition, since the surface of the fuel rod does not exceed 100 degrees, the water used as a moderator does not boil.

Further increase the output and reach 1 MW in about 5 minutes of the movie. The amount of air bubbles visible on the fuel rods has increased dramatically.

Looking up at the fuel rods, it looks like this.

There are a lot of bubbles.

The reactor stopped about 8 minutes after the movie started. From here, the playback speed of the movie will be 4 times faster.

The light emission has almost disappeared.

And GoPro was withdrawn ...

Finally, you can hit something like a shower head, which is a radiation detector. Of course, GoPro is installed in a place where the neutron concentration in the bathtub is sufficiently thin, but it seems that it is necessary to check the radiation amount of what is put in the bathtub. In addition, since there was no problem with the amount of detection, it was possible to publish such a valuable movie on YouTube.