Nick Touran
@whatisnuclear.com
Ph.D./P.E. nuclear engineer and nuclear educator who runs https://whatisnuclear.com. Thinks about how to deliver nuclear power reliably and cheaply, advanced reactors, reactor history, energy.
Great film: Research Reactors U.S.A (1958) Fun to see the University of Michigan Ford Nuclear Reactor in some detail at the beginning. Thanks to the IAEA for digitizing and DOE for letting me publish it. youtu.be/3BJyBohKeD4?...
Research Reactors U.S.A. (1958)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtu.be
What does "going critical" mean? If you shoot a neutron into some uranium ore, some atoms will split by fission, but you haven't made a nuclear reactor. Too many secondary neutrons leak out or get absorbed without splitting neighboring atoms. 1/n
The Engineering Test Reactor (ETR) was constructed in 1957 at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. It was a 175 MWt reactor that absolutely hammered fuels and materials with high flux neutrons, fine-tuning the high-performance nuclear technology we use today www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_b3...
Engineering Test Reactor (1958)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
This Combustion Engineering facility in Chattanooga, TN fabricated 57 reactor pressure vessels for US reactors, plus more overseas, and lots of other heavy equipment. As the nuclear industry ramps back up in the US, I hope we see lots more facilities like this soon.
If you pull a vacuum on wood, then impregnate it with a monomer, and then irradiate it with gamma rays, you get a wood-plastic composite that is extremely tough while looking great. If it gets scuffed, you just buff it out, the finish goes all the way through. www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9sQ...
Atomic Revolution in Wood (1969)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
Industrial Applications of Nuclear Explosives (1958) That's one way to make a new harbor! www.youtube.com/watch?v=py9e...
Industrial Applications of Nuclear Explosives (1958)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
Those new studies linking nuclear plant proximity to cancer use very weak scientific methods. No dose assessment, no control group. It's shameful that they passed peer review. Takedown here: www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/two-new-pa...
Two New Papers Are Wrong About Cancer Risk from Nuclear Plants
Poor Research Design and Strong Claims Don’t Mesh Well
breakthroughjournal.org
Visiting the Nuclear Ship Savannah in person is worth traveling to Baltimore for, especially since they recently opened up the reactor vessel. Saturday, February 21st. www.ans.org/news/2026-02... @americannuclear.bsky.social
NS Savannah soon open to the public
ans.org
This has to be the fastest way to add 10 GW of new nuclear capacity in the US (uprating existing reactors!) www.wsj.com/business/ene...?
Exclusive | A Nuclear-Power Startup Says It Can Rouse the Slow-Moving Industry
Alva Energy has the support of former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger, whose venture firm led its recent $33 million fundraising round.
wsj.com
ICYMI: @whatisnuclear.com digitized this 1967 film about the BONUS reactor, in Puerto Rico. Superheated steam from a boiling water reactor! whatisnuclear.com/news/2023-09...
Have you ever wondered if small nuclear reactors could possibly beat out the economies of scale from large reactors? Check out my latest report @theniaorg.bsky.social “Right-Sizing Reactors: Balancing trade-offs between economies of scale and volume” tinyurl.com/bdhz27wt
The classic mouse trap and ping pong ball demo, from Martin Marietta. Only problem is that the mouse traps flying around set off other mouse traps, dramatically increasing keff. They should have glued them to the bottom. (VHS quality because, well, it was on VHS)
I made a new 'microreactors' page. Benefits: 1. Novel power markets 2. Manufactured product 3. Within reach of VC 4. Fewer radionuclides Challenges: 1. Economies of scale 2. Tyranny of neutron diffusion 3. Shielding whatisnuclear.com/microreactor...
What are Microreactors?
Definition, history, opportunities, and challenges of micro nuclear reactors
whatisnuclear.com
Presenting: A 1980s film describing uranium enrichment using gaseous diffusion. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5gN...
The Enrichment of Uranium (1980s)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
🍿⚛️ Today we have: "Managing Radioactive Waste At the Nevada Test Site", a 1980 film from DOE, freshly scanned off of U-matic video cassette kindly provided to me by Prof. Ron Knief. www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Jd...
Managing Radioactive Wastes At The Nevada Test Site (1980)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
Check out the state of nuclear fusion research as it stood in 1988 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuss...
Sun of Man (1988)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
It's not that advanced reactors aren't and can never be economical (that's crazy), but they haven't been economical so far (for very specific reasons) and have a steep hill to climb to achieve viability. As always, the only way to climb it is to build build build. www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2JL...
Inside America’s $3T Nuclear Bet (HALEU)
YouTube video by AtomicBlender
youtube.com
Those were the highlights. Here's the full 12-mins in documentary form www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LVq...
Nuclear Waste Canisters Being Hit with Trucks/Trains and burned in jet fuel (Accident Testing, 1980)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
Nick Touran@whatisnuclear.com · 7mo agoNuclear waste transport cask testing... with Red Alert music
Flash animations from the 2006 version of whatisnuclear dot com, made by yours truly. "This is what they stole from us" 😂
Neat site that explains the value of clean firm resources like nuclear, hydro, and geothermal in a highly decarbonized grid nathandiyer.github.io/clean-energy...
The Beetle, everyone's favorite actually-real mecha, inside and out. It was designed to do maintenance in the highly radioactive areas around nuclear-powered long-range bomber aircraft back in the nuclear-powered flight days.
I'm currently getting these historical nuclear films digitized. Standby! As far as I can tell, none of them exist online yet except the Accident Testing one, which shows the Sandia cask tests. I'm getting that one scanned with hopes that it'll be extra high quality for everyone's pleasure.
Yesterday, Russia announced that its new nuclear-powered cruise missile flew for 15 hours straight. The US had such a thing in development in the 1950s (see film), but it looks like the Russians have finally gotten one operational. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qMu...
Nuclear-powered Ramjet Cruise Missile: LASV-N1 (Progress Report 1963)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtube.com
Here's what neutron chain reaction dynamics kinda look like. The green bar is control rod position and the trace shows reactor power, starting at 1. After each control adjustment, there is a 'prompt jump' followed by a longer exponential tail from delayed neutrons.
Man! I was at a workshop in my home state of Michigan on Thursday and we were brainstorming ideas to bring more nuclear power industry to the state. I mentioned that the Upper Peninsula has pretty good geology for a long-term nuclear waste repository (reducing environment, precambrian rock)....
Can't reply on the post for some reason... but after 3 years of shutdown it does not take that much cooling to keep the spent fuel cooled. Something like a garden hose of water going in should suffice. I'm not super worried about it.
@umpft.bsky.social · 10mo ago@whatisnuclear.com @energybants.bsky.social What are the chances for a meltdown after years of cooling? Thanks!
Taking a Geiger counter on a flight with the sound on is a great way to get some serious side-eye from your neighbors, maybe leading to a good discussion about dose rate
It's a true miracle of nature that water is both a good neutron moderator and reactor coolant. Its ability to moderate and cool at the same time is quite underappreciated in today's pro-nuclear circles.
