Peeking inside a High Flux Nuclear Reactor... (aka: holy shit, look at that blue glow)

Here is a pretty damn interesting look into the operation of a High Flux Isotope Reactor at the once top secret Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Today, you can take tours there, so it's not so secret anymore...

This reactor was predominantly used to create special targets for superheavy element testing, but is now more focused on creating high-density neutron sources for certain types of experiments.

There's some pretty masterful engineering and machining going on here, and this is considered an "old" reactor. Some of the individual parts take years to make and are insanely expensive. The cores themselves are almost $2 million a piece!


[link to youtu.be (secure)]

(Gotta love that blue glow...)