Bask in the unearthly glow.
You’ve probably seen a nuclear reactor on the big screen before, a huge mass of metal submerged in a bath of cool water with an array of plutonium rods gingerly lowered by a slow and deliberate robot arm. The thing doesn’t glow all the time—this isn’t the intro to The Simpsons—that creepy neon glow does have a basis in fact. It’s blinding, mesmerizing, and sort of terrifying to see.
Take this, for example, a nuclear pulse filmed at a research reactor in Texas by one of researchers. As he explains on Reddit, the pulse goes from 50 watts to 1,484 megawatts in 3.94 microseconds or .00000394 seconds reaching temperatures of 786 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s very high for a research reactor, but low for actual power generation. The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario, Canada—the largest operating nuclear power plant in the world—generates between 6,272 MW and 7,276 MW when it is running at full capacity. Still, a 1,484 burst is very impressive to watch:
According to our nuclear cameraman friend, this kind of pulse is relatively rare as the sudden surge of energy can actually damage the fuel. This is an occasional event, and this particular pulse was part of the reactor’s annual checkup. Fortunately, thanks to YouTube, you can watch it over and over and over.
