I have over slept at the day of the trip (Sad face!) and because of that I have not fully experienced the whole trip, but got some information about their lab through their website.

The MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (MIT-NRL) is leading university laboratory that conducts in interdisciplinary research. MIT-NRL operates a 5 MW nuclear reactor in the United States. Our mission is to provide faculty and students from MIT and other institutions with both a state-of-the-art neutron source and the infrastructure required to facilitate to use of the reactor.

I have found some useful information from their brochure

– What are these? (Observe from left to right):

A) Reactor Top View.                                    B) Nuclear Reactor Core.

C) Reactor Floor View.                                  D) Reactor core with Cerenkov radiation.

E) Silicon area and Prompt Gamma Facility.

G) Control Panel for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Irradiation

H) Fission Converter Process System I) The NRL control room

– Experimental facilities: The MITR operates at full power 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. A typical fuel cycle lasts about 6 weeks. Table 1 is summary of the neutron fluxes of the major experimental facilities.

Table 1.   MITR Neutron Flux Levels at 5 MW

Over all I have wanted to go badly, but sleep was to powerful to handle that morning, knowing that I had to spent all night writing our midterm exam (Ha Ha!).