I haven’t gone on a field trip since my jr. year of highschool, so when I got wind that we were taking a feild trip in my science class you can imgine how excited I got!
We were going to Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nuclear Reactor Laboratory or NRL, the MIT-NRL houses and operates a 5 megawatt (MW) nuclear reactor! pretty cool huh?
The nuclear reactor (MITR) runs at 50°C (the temperature of hot bath water). Currently the reactor is the second largest university reactor right behind the university of st. Louis, in the entire country. The MITR is “a light-water cooled and moderated, heavy-water reflected nuclear reactor that utilizes flat, plate-type finned, aluminum clad fuel elements.” The reactor is strictly used to generate any electricity but rather it produces neurons that scientists and researchers use in their studie and research. Even if it was used to generate electricity, after all of the power lost in transmission of energy, its 5 MW capacity would only be able to power a handful of light bulbs.
Starting of my trip to the MIT necular reactor lab they signed us in and gave us these things that mesured the rediation levels we were exposed to…kinda scary! What did I sign up for here
We went through one security door and two sets of blast proof doors before entering into the steel box containment building where the MITR is held. Once we were in we were shown around given a tour by our great/cool tour giude, Adam. Frist thing we leaned was that back in the day the MIT-NRL used to be used to conduct research on humans, specifically humans with cancer/tumors . Using a form of therapy called Baron Neutron Capture Therapy . Patients used to be held in a room under the reactor and scientists could/would “zap” the tumor, similar to what we call to kemotherapy I believe. it was pretty cool to learn this, seem like something that came out stright from a frankeinstain movie ! *que sound effects* p.s. this research done on human are no longer done and zap is strickly kept to mice now! *breath sigh of relieve*
We were lead down to the control room (pictured above) where someone must always be to check for any abnormalities aka weird stuff in the neutron flux levels of the MITR. Most of the controls are analog because of resistance from head organization to make the switch to digital. Their resistance is based on many things like being more able to control analog but mostly it’s just unwillingness to make changes. If you ask me moooove on to the future people!, digital is more accurate, quicker, and easier to use. Give it a chance will ya!
Going into the feild trip I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I was a bit confused like my firend Nicky here.
But by the end of the trip we had leaned soo much and got to see some pretty cool stuff that none of us had ever seen before! It was interting to see what we were leaning in class outside of class in real life!
Thanks MIT for having us!
Till we meet again readers!
About nancyafonso529
Hey there! allow me to introduce myself, my name is Nancy Afonso,a junior here at Suffolk U. I've created this blog to blog about all the cool stuff we learn about in my Sceince and inovation class this semester. Happy reading and thank you for checkin out my blog!
I really liked your in-depth discussion about the field trip. The pictures were also helpful in explaining what you had encountered during the trip. Sounds like you had a fun time.