The Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment
1,024,428
Published 2016-10-14
Thanks to Y-12 for the collection, preservation and digitization of this and other historic films.
All Comments (21)
-
These old documentaries are great because the information isn't dumbed down like in the newer documentaries. Straight up informative and almost tutorial-like films you could build your own salt reactors based on.
-
Keep in mind folks, this was figured out with slide rule and drafting tables....just like the SR 71. AMAZING!
-
Anyone else humbled by the incredible quality of components and the meticulous assembly that was required? What a beautiful contraption!
-
15:42 "Another feature of the MSRE is its high-speed digital computer." Priceless.
-
Did a radiological survey up there, Boeing did an amazing job of clearing the sector, and I only found one fragment that had anything above background. It was incomplete, but I felt fairly safe just 300 feet from the old reactor.
-
This film has quite a lot of engineering detail!
-
extraordinary that only five years were required from first concepts on paper (may 1960) to first criticality (june 1 1965), keeping in mind the absence of computer modelling and design, the small team and the completely new materials that had to be designed and invented. It remains strange that humanity has not really seen a nuclear age except in the negative sense of the word.
-
ORNL thank you thank you thank you... thank you for digging this up and posting it.
-
I love these old style documentaries, there is something oddly nostalgic about the music and even the voice even though it's way before my time. Wonder why we don't use these reactors today, seems they are pretty efficient.
-
This is so rad! I love that it's original and classically resembles educational films of the era, and obviously that it simply and fully explains the working of the MSRE. I hope we get many, many of these reactors up and running sooner than later to replace coal for our baseline electricity needs. Thank you so much ORNL!
-
Forget Watergate! Canceling this, is the biggest mistake Nixon made!
-
I was digging through my dads storage unit and found a text book called nuclear reactor engineering from 1962. There is a page dedicated to the MSRE at oak ridge. My dad was considering a career in nuclear energy in the early 60 but decided to focus on electroplating
-
When the narrator says that the reactor was "stable at all power levels," that is something that is mind blowing. These reactors load follow and are intrinsically self-regulating! Meltdowns would be impossible.
-
I love this reactor, and I am working with other folks to make this a reality today.
-
The intern's shoulders slumped as tasks were delegated. Off to empty another room of archives for potential server space. Then, eyes brightening, an exclamation "What, ho?! Film reels!! Molten Salt!! Stand back ye fiend of age, all shall be made light. Though dark and weary deals have seized thine visage, and memory lost to time... To the interweb-o-nets with ye. Post Haste!!" We're all grateful, whoever you are.
-
I get so depressed when I think of all the damage that could have been prevented if this was developed. We cannot change the past, but we can fix the present for a better future.
-
I honestly love these old informational videos, if not only for the music.
-
after watching Gordon's other videos with Kirk Sorenson for the thousanth time in the last few months. now here is this gem.
-
"high speed digital computer" [wheels start turning] LOL
-
They weren't so stoopid back in the good 'ol days. Humbling for us over 50 years later. I think this film shows what a formidable task companies like Terrestrial Energy have got to even get a test bench reactor up and running.
