Nuclear Physicist Reacts To THE SIMPSONS a School Trip to the Nuclear Power Plant

Nuclear Physicist Reacts To THE SIMPSONS a School Trip to the Nuclear Power Plant
In this video, I react to scenes in the SIMPSONS a School Trip to the Nuclear Power Plant episode from the perspective of a nuclear physicist. I go through the scenes in the SIMPSONS a School Trip to the Nuclear Power Plant episode and look through what is accurate information about nuclear power plants, radioactivity, and nuclear meltdowns in the SIMPSONS a School Trip to the Nuclear Power Plant.
Hope you like the video about Nuclear Physicist Reacts To THE SIMPSONS a School Trip to the Nuclear Power Plant. Don't forget to like and subscribe and share with friends and family members.

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Do you like these react episodes? Stay tuned for my next video where we’re discussing a heated, highly controversial and highly requested topic! See you soon! Thanks for watching!☢️👩🏽‍🔬🧪🥼

[@greglinski2208]

Love your vid’s Elina ✌🏻

[@Boodieman72]

Elina, how would the control rods be lowered into the core?

[@jamesjohnston9225]

Yes. It's a fun mix of science and comedy

[@RMSTitanicWSL]

It's hilarious seeing your reaction to them, though sometimes your head must hurt from the silliness and stupidity of the show. The standard design for a nuclear reactor would indeed have the radioactive steam pipes within the pressure vessel, and a nonradioactive steam loop that enters the pressure vessel. They meet at a heat exchanger where the radioactive steam transfers its heat to the nonradioactive water, which heats the nonradioactive water into nonradioactive steam and cools the radioactive steam into radioactive water, which is sent back to the core and reheated. But that's nowadays, and older designs may not have been so safe--that is, they may not have had two separate steam loops. Some older Soviet nuclear subs may have also lacked the second loop. the cooling system is a separate system from both these loops. Bottom line, the radioactive steam pipe that Homer hit was just for the plot, and even if a real power plant DID have such a setup, there would definitely be barricades capable of stopping something far more powerful and massive than his cart--at least nowadays.....

[@BerishStarr]

Yes! Love all you post ❤🤙

[@KewneRain]

Part of the thing with Springfield's nuclear power plant is that it's portrayed as unimaginably unsafe. I won't spoil anything beyond that, but in later episodes you're gonna have some fun.

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Could you write the title of the episode ?👩🏽‍🔬☢️

[@timmyingelbrecht6977]

I think he means througout multiple episodes its shown how lacking the safetyprecautions are.

[@alangivre2474]

@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist T8E23 the one with Frank Grimes!! One of the best episodes.

[@badouplus1304]

@@alangivre2474 The episode when Homer perform some tests in a reactor simulator is not bad also. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYPWnGSnqrqjqZI

[@harrypotterwannabe5892]

@@alangivre2474 Yes, I do want to see that episode to be reviewed and reacted too. 👍

[@Kualinar]

The nuclear power plan in the Simpsons have absolutely EVERYTHING that can be made wrong, is maintained by the MOST inept crew and managed by the very worst boss possible.

[@jamesjohnston9225]

This was a good one, especially the "film" they showed during the field trip. With your presentation, it appears they are putting just enough realism in this part of the Simpsons to get one to understand the comedy and tragedy of the situation. Thanks and please keep the reactions coming

[@rossrobertson674]

Im sure the creator or one of the writers had a dad who worked at a nuclear plant, everything in the show was written from their experiences

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thanks for the comment and the support 👩🏽‍🔬☢️

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Ahaha that’s a way of looking at it 👩🏽‍🔬☢️

[@TimeToGetAlone]

Always cool to hear your takes on these Simpsons clips. Thanks for posting!

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thanks for watching and looking forward to making more informative fun content you enjoy guys!☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@Zither_Bard]

YAY more Simpsons! I'm surprised that the cute educational video was actually accurate in some ways! Loving all these :)

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thank you 👩🏽‍🔬☢️ I appreciate the support

[@DAndyLord]

I'm a big fan of old Simpsons, and really enjoy watching your content. Thanks!

[@kaitlyn__L]

I’ve always thought Burns skimped on the heat exchange fluid and just allowed fresh water to flow in and out of the core, since the whole deal is that he’s skirting regulations and making more money at the expense of the town. But then, I guess what are the cooling towers for? Especially since real plant which uses local river water for cooling (such as Hunterston) don’t have cooling towers at all. I guess the writers mixed-up a few different plant topologies, especially since the geography of Springfield is so undefined - sometimes the plant is near water flows, sometimes it’s in the middle of nowhere. Or I suppose there could just be a neglected leak inside the heat exchanger, rather than it being entirely skipped. But yeah, the 3-eyed fish is meant to represent the wildlife being mutated by the release of radioactive water. (It actually becomes a scandal later-on, with the press being shown the fish and Burns has to claim it’s perfectly safe to eat.)

[@filanfyretracker]

domes and cooling towers are the stereotypical image of a nuclear power station in America as well, so from a TV production angle its good to go with the most common image of a US plant.

[@mariagavriilidou7525]

Hahaha well he had it coming indeed. Never watched Simpsons only here through your reaction videos. So fun and interesting watching it in a way with you ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thank you 👩🏽‍🔬☢️♥️

[@blaketindle4703]

The emergency exit that’s just painted onto the wall is one of my favorite safety violations of the Springfield Nuclear Plant lol

[@jaydearien8624]

"Time to react..." that's a good line if not already intentionally comedic.

[@patrickdegenaar9495]

The Russian reactor on the Khystm did exactly what the video describe. No secondary loops! The river water went straight into the reactor core and then back into the river. Radioactive materials eventually caused the local lake to dry up spreading radioactive dust everywhere. Read up on the Khystm disaster- possibly worse than chernoble in terms of spread of contamination.

[@JohnSmith-wx9wj]

I lose track of all the insane environmental disasters from the Soviet Union.

[@BatCaveOz]

Water used in a nuclear reactor doesn't become radioactive. Elina addresses this directly circa 3:20

[@patrickdegenaar9495]

@@BatCaveOz You have misunderstood. If the water goes through a secondary loop it should not be contaminated - or very mildly contaminated (depending on design), as per the video. But if the water is fed directly into the core, it would be quite heavily contaminated, as per early Soviet designs. i.e. In this case, the water would dissolve some radioactive components from the fuel rods, and pick up radioactive particulates. As per my comment, I suggest you do a search for "Kyshtym disaster"

[@johannaweichsel3602]

Yeah, I doubt we'll ever know with the level of secrecy at the time, even today.

[@5tarSailor]

Binging all your videos, really love a professional in the field talking about this stuff in media

[@blaketindle4703]

I highly recommend the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode “Global Grilling”. Shake buys a radioactive grill called the “Char-Nobyl” and it burns so hot it lights the clouds on fire and causes enormous global warming lol

[@adaptking3170]

Thank you for doing more of these!

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

👩🏽‍🔬☢️ my pleasure

[@Fireglo]

Damn Smithers has got quite the tan on.

[@CABL-TylerBaratta]

Wow I'm interested to what you have to say you just popped up on mu recommendations on my KZbin obviously lol 😆

[@zeon5323]

Elina, I have watched all your videos. Very entertaining and informative. Could you do a video about yourself? Education, what you actually do as a nuclear physicist? Maybe some personal stuff?

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thanks so much for comment I really appreciate you 👩🏽‍🔬☢️I'll do this video in the future! Thanks again

[@thirstfast1025]

@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist I agree, an "Elina In The Field" series to show us some of what you do would be great!

[@LilGamingYes]

@@thirstfast1025 Hi guys! Welcome to the first episode of "Elina in the field", I hope you enjoy! *Elina sleeps at the controls panel like Homer, the whole episode* (This is obviously a joke, precising before someone doesn't get humor and picks a fight, AGAIN)

[@thirstfast1025]

@@LilGamingYes Hahaha! No worries of a fight here! That would be hilarious! Changing out little lightbulbs, complaining about how everyone ate the good doughnuts while she slept.... Not what I envisioned initially, but that would be an absolutely hilarious video!

[@supercolinblow]

I forgot that that happened in the first season of the Simpsons. (Don't they look odd compared to later years of that show? LOL) Years ago I worked with a college student who said she worked on the university's small nuclear reactor (I guess it's for training purposes?) I'm not the science/math brain-type but I love reading about stuff like nuclear power. Great video, I look forward to your next one!

[@57thorns]

The first part is spot on how you would expect the animated explanations of nuclear power to be done in the 1950s. And the rug is satire/political commentary from an animated television series that is _definitely_ _not_ a kids show.

[@mrwonderful2142]

The episode where they gave Mr. Smithers the wrong color 🤣

[@christopherleubner6633]

Reminds me when the TVA visited the school and passed around various samples of the fuel cycle as well as some more exotic samples like htgr pellets and fuel brick (that looked suspiciously similar to a charcoal briquette) the real samples were the ore, uranium concentrates, uranium oxide, green salt and unirradiated fuel pellets. The simulated ones were the UF6, enriched uranium metal, and used fuel. Also brought geiger counters and several samples to show the different penetration of radiation types. 🤓

[@matthewbeasley7765]

As for the "valve" that shuts off in case of a main steam leak. Yeah, it's not a handwheel. None of the big valves are moved by a handwheel, they're too big. These valves are nicknamed the MSIV (Main Steam Isolation Valves) In all designs, they've settle on the same kind of valve design. It swings open against the steam flow. To open it a small bypass is opened and pressure is equalized. Then an air cylinder is used to push it open. Once the valve is swung all the way open the force feedback is low. If the air is vented from the cylinder, the steam flow will slam the valve shut. I've never gotten to witness one close in person, but I've been told it is impressively / scarily loud. In a PWR, there is a single valve. It's there for two reasons. First is if there is a primary to secondary exchanger leak. The valve will be closed gently by venting the other steam generator(s) in this case. The other will be if there is some kind of destruction downstream that causes a massive leak. The rapid loss of steam pressure will quickly chill the primary loop and cause excessive thermal stress that could risk breaking something. They close automatically on high flow. In a BWR, the steam lines are a route directly from the core to the outside of containment so they go to much more of an extreme to make sure those lines can be closed if needed. They have two of the check valve style valves plus a conventional motor operated valve. Usually it's one air operated and one motor operated inside containment and one air operated outside containment. They trip automatically on many more events. In all cases, tripping a MSIV is also an immediate reactor and turbine trip. Even for an accidental trip or easily fixed problem, the plant is going down for a day because of Xenon poisoning. So yep, it's going to be many millions of dollars for such an event.

[@erebuskraken5483]

Well you had it coming, your heartless 😆. Good video.

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Ahahaha 👩🏽‍🔬☢️

[@DavidPirouet]

What Homer would be good for is to find out ways that nuclear power stations fail so instead of working for Mr Burns, he should be in a simulator buy an atomic safety agency. I know he managed to melt down the simulation before but how often can that happen 👍

[@autisticgamer4949]

With Homer? Every time

[@KennySouthPark86]

Your videos are awesome, super chill and interesting!

[@spazbog123]

I still find it funny that all a nuclear power plant is, is still just a fancy way of boiling water to make a turbine spin - it does the same job as burning coal even though we think it is some technological marvel but it is just a fancy kettle.

[@PhycoKrusk]

That's about the long and short of it. The biggest difference is the amount of energy you can get from the fuel; the energy density of Uranium-235 is 3,000,000 times greater than the energy density of coal. 1 kilogram of coal will power the average American household for about 6 hours (still nothing to sneeze at), but 1 kilogram of U-235 will power 2,880,000 households for 6 hours. And it will do it while producing 0 carbon emissions and releasing less radioactive material into the environment (except during a horrific accident) than burning coal. It requires about 0.1% of the land that solar needs to produce the same amount of power, and is available all the time (not just when the sun is shining). Nuclear energy is the only serious way to reduce carbon emissions with current technology while not also killing tens of millions of people who depend on electricity for heat, water, food, and medicine; everything else is a vanity project undertaken to gain social currency, not to save the environment, and anybody that claims otherwise is either grossly misinformed or lying.

[@lbrass]

I have watched a few of your videos. I find your insight interesting. I would say in order to fully understand Homer, and the rest of what is going on at the nuclear power plant you should watch many more episodes that do not take place the nuclear power plant so you can see the satire. Also just how it makes fun Society in general

[@anthonyhyde2055]

You always doing a great job.

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thanks ☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@fireaza]

I always find it weird that for as advanced as the process of nuclear energy is, what it essentially comes down to is... Boiling water to make steam, like it's the 1900s or something. Is there really no better way to use it to produce electricity? It seems a bit like giving a primitive civilization access to stainless steel cookware, and they're like "yes, very good, this is quite hard and heavy. It will work well for smacking flint to produce flint knives."

[@sonicmastersword8080]

Main reason why boiling water to produce steam is still dominant is water is cheap, well understood, and the processes developed for utilizing it are already near peak efficiency.

[@indoor_vaping]

When I watched this many years ago this actually taught me how nuclear power worked.

[@asterix7842]

I like when you react to these Simpson episodes. I guess that makes you a nuclear reactor?

[@ThatJay283]

one thing i just had the idea about, is i really wanna make a 2d pixel based nuclear physics simulator. like it'd be so cool to have a tool to experiment with nuclear particles, maybe with a control rod system, and using different moderators (such as graphite or water) to visualise the changes in reactivity. powder toy does have nuclear elements in it, but it's extremely simplified. i wanna have a sandbox with slow and fast neutrons, different elements, different purities, and different isotopes. to make it realistic id just need a bunch of data, in a useful format, which I'm sure exists, so i can model the nuclear behaviour of all the elements :D

[@blaketindle4703]

Yeah you’re right unless there’s a meltdown the water in the plant shouldn’t be contaminated with radiation.

[@williamcook1973]

The Simpsons predicted a tree eyes fish in the cool down pond of a Nuclear power plant. One was found in an Argentinian nuclear power plant.

[@derkhart6019]

Hi Elina, these reaction videos are really good, I can't tell if the Simpsons are mocking themselves or us, if you've ever watched nuclear bombs going off, the us army are just waiting to get hit by the blast wave an fallout, the sane with radium, they were painting there teeth with that luminous poison.

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

👩🏽‍🔬☢️

[@agy234]

Mr burns is also very lax in dumping the waste. So it could be possible some of the drums end up in the water. Similar to all the drums he dumped in the park

[@alphaomega1351]

Homer Simpson should not be allowed to work at a fast food joint let alone a nuclear power plant. Did they forego an interview and background check? 😶

[@radumarinescu5816]

Love your comments. Nuclear waste shoved under the carpet and Smiling Joe Fission are the best takeaways from this.

[@smarkymark1097]

I think S:8 E:23 "Homer's Enemy" is a good one to watch that showcases how that power plant operates.

[@MrSupercar55]

As both a fan of The Simpsons and a gamer, my favourite depiction of Springfield’s nuclear power plant is in The Simpsons Hit And Run. In levels 1 and 4 it is possible to drive through the power plant in a car and emerge from the Stonecutters’ tunnel. As you go through the power plant, there’s a whole bunch of giant pipes, a spinning object that almost looks like part of a spaceship in Star Trek and a stream of some kind of yellow glowing liquid. What’s more is that the final level culminates with Homer destroying an alien spaceship with none other than nuclear waste. I know it’s for entertainment purposes only and all, but I’m still curious to know, what’s your opinion on it?

[@jackielinde7568]

Technically, you could say the "sweep it under the rug" IS how the US handles nuclear waste. After all, we stick it in a metal drum, encase it in concrete, dig a BIG hole and toss the waste in the hole.

[@paulthing]

poor Homer, lol thank you for sharing

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@mado-wh4jv]

3:36 You forgot to mention, is portrayed like the water disposed was some kind of wasted when in reality is just hot water that was used to cold down the reactor, totally safe to drink but if I was a fish I wouldn't like to be nearby.

[@m.e.345]

Don't worry.. I hear Homer has been promoted to a management position.😄

[@clemnorman4025]

I Love these reaction videos

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thanks so much appreciate it ☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@jimjimmyjam8242]

We don't watch simpsons for the technical accuracies 😁 this was very interesting for sure.

[@thirstfast1025]

What's that quote from them? "It's a cartoon! Cartoons don't have to be %100 accurate!" (as a second Homer walks past the window) But yes, I could listen to Elina talk about cartoon nuclear physics all day too!

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

2,23 that why I’m a supporter of nuclear ☢️ fusion, like the fusion reactor they are building in France.

[@Pahis1]

I still remember learning that nuclear plants are just glorified steam engines (or fancy kettles) :) Blew my mind. Somehow I thought nuclear reaction magically created electricity by itself.

[@marvelbliss]

Funny thing: There's actually an early episode that revolves around that three-eyed fish (or "Blinky", as he's later named). Mr. Burns used the fish as a sort of mascot for a political campaign, which backfires on him in the end. That foolish old man, trying to exploit mutants he created for personal gain! 😂

[@RachDarastrix2]

Interesting fact, radioactive metal is dug out of a mine in the form of ore. All radioactive waste is is dross removed when purifying the metal. In the past they simply disposed of it by putting it right back where they got the ore but now a days they are able to make it into batteries in order to deplete the energy from it completely until there is no radioactivity left at all. Radioactivity is basically just a form of metal poisoning from partials of metal with energy in it. No particles in the water means no radioactivity. The depiction of the water becoming radioactive is just part of a running joke where Mr. Burns is a business man who hurts the environment on purpose because he's evil to make fun of people who actually think businessmen are like that.

[@asterix7842]

This was from episode 3, when Smithers was black. This was a coloring mistake and they didn’t have the budget then to fix it, but the next episode he was yellow just like everyone else. There had been discussion before the episode about making him black, but it was decided that it would not have looked good to have a black sycophantic servant to a white billionaire so it was decided that Smithers would be white too.

[@CentralPASpotter]

I love that shirt. Where did you get it?

[@valentinshihman16]

As for 3:12 I don't know a lot about US nuclear energy, but in former soviet union there was so called "open circuit reactors". As far as I know there was several such reactor at Kyshtym (Chelyabinsk region) facility and these reactors was not for producing power, but for producing plutonium for bombs. They took water from the Techya river, pumped it through reactor's core and then flushed this water back to river. These "open circuit reactors" had a lot of malfunction so flushed water was highly radioactive and unfortunately people from the villages downstream the Techya river had not being evacuated for a long time. And of course I don't think that any type of fish could survive in this condition.

[@michaelarrowood4315]

The setup is great: a totally humorless nuclear physicist collides with a comedic story about a school class visiting a fantasy nuclear power plant. Comedy ensues, I guess. :) Elina gets points for putting up with unscientific stuff that the masses find funny. Yes, American comedy is pretty sad - but not a bad Simpsons episode. Remind me again, why did we need an actual scientist to point all this stuff out? Pretty much anybody could have done that...

[@brainstimulationchannel]

You must be fun at parties. If “anyone could’ve done that” we would have more reaction videos on the Simpsons from actual scientists. How about you get off your high horse and make your own KZbin videos? You’ve gotta be so full of humor and comedic genius to call someone else humorless. But judging by your comment I would say it’s all projection. Reality ensues, I guess :)

[@B.B.Digital_Forest]

Those rods look the Pez dispensers you don't want to collect. Nor their pellets.

[@IdleByte]

"Very kid friendly way..." as the rods are screaming in pain from the boiling water...

[@thirstfast1025]

0:11 every seat in that auditorium is a pod chair. Those are like ~$2k each.

[@docdat3468]

Hide it unter the rug sounds like a good idea :)

[@Hamstray]

Harry Shearer, who voices Mr Burns, is outspoken anti-nuclear. It's no surprise that Simpsons depicts nuclear power in a negative light.

[@rationalbelief4451]

The 3 eyed fish arose a question in my mind. Can random mutation due to radiation be actually good for nature? If yes, can you provide me some research where its found that random mutation can be good for nature? If not, how evolution through natural selection with random mutation can produce new species which are healthy and live a normal life like other animals. Again great video and I love all of your videos :)

[@Jerry-yu7sr]

1: 35 Shows hydro turbines. IMO steam turbines are usually horizontal axis.

[@ElmoUnk1953]

That was fun. 🤩

[@devm3116]

A pretty nuclear physicist with an accent 😍

[@dison1172]

Great vid 😊

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Thanks for the support appreciated 👩🏽‍🔬☢️

[@tremorsfan]

I think this episode actually made me pro nuclear.

[@HappyBear376]

Your voice is amazing.

[@williampilling2168]

It's important to remember the Springfield plant is poorly designed, even more poorly maintained, and incredibly unsafe, due in so small part to the fact that Homer is the plant safety inspector.

[@matthewbeasley7765]

I wouldn't say there is _NO_ radioactive water released, but the amount is quite minimal. The biggest source of releases come from maintenance activities. The worker's protective clothing will be laundered, and any contamination present gets passed into the waste water stream. Any hot equipment that is going to be worked on will be washed down first to limit the exposure to employees, and there again any contamination will be transferred to the waste water stream. That waste water is filtered and ion exchange treated before release, turning the contamination into solid waste. But not filtration and ion exchange is 100% perfect, so a tiny amount of artificial radioactive material is released. Ironically, it is quite common for the effluent to be quite a bit less active than the receiving water due to natural radiation in the natural waterway... but it is a 'release'. In the end, the total activity is going down, as the initial radioactivity that was in the wash water is also removed. The other source is going to be releases of primary (PWR) or power system (BWR) water. Primary water is extremely radioactive in operation and moderately radioactive in shutdown. There are three sources of radioactivity in the reactor water. The first is from activation of the water itself. This is in the form of a couple of paths, tritium production and neutron spallation production of N16. Tritium is produced by a couple of neutron captures of the hydrogen. All of the water that is in the primary side is in a closed system that can mix - the primary loop, the spend fuel pool, refueling water (used to flood the reactor cavity and provide shielding during refueling) and the treatment system all get mixed together during refueling. That water is never intentionally released, just recycled over and over again through cleanup systems. Over decades, the water becomes more and more half or even full heavy water. That deuterium increase starts increasing tritium production. To avoid that, there are services that move from plant to plant with deuterium extraction units. Tritium groundwater contamination is a thing at some nuclear power plants, where underground piping had small undetected leaks releasing tritium. The neutron spallation producing N16 happens when a neutron kicks one of the protons off an O16 atom. The N16 has a 7.1s half life, with a beta - gamma emission. The gamma ranges from 6-7MEV and easily goes through the plant piping and equipment casings. In terms of release risk, this is very low. Mainly there is a concern over gaseous release of the N16. But in terms of operating risk it is huge. For this reason, no maintenance around BWR turbines can be performed at full power. The second primary contamination source is activated corrosion products. The materials used are all corrosion resistant steel or nickel / steel alloys. The "corrosion resistance" just means that there is a well adhered oxide layer to passivate the metal, not that corrosion doesn't happen. Most of the corrosion is in the form of magnetite for the iron or other low ionization state of the other metals, that adheres well. At room temperature the metal will stay shiny. But in the presence of water and high temperatures, the oxide layer gets quite thick and visibly darkens. The passivation layer can flake off. If the source material was near the core, it will already be activated from the neutron flux. If not, the passes through the core will activate it. The loose corrosion products have been nicknamed "crud" for their dark fine sand / muddy appearance. When cooling down, the contraction of the metal can cause mass release of the passivation layer, and this is nicknamed a "crud bust". A crud bust is associate with a huge spike in primary activity. To reduce this risk, low cobalt metals are used. The third source is leakage from damaged fuel rods. The easiest to get out are gasses as the absolutely smallest crack is going to let the gas out. This shows up as primarily argon, krypton and xenon. They're a pain in the ass, as they're impossible to remove via any chemical extraction, they like to get out the tiniest leaks and like to bind to static charges via Van der Waals forces. Any synthetic clothing is avoided among workers because they like to trap the noble gases. In a PWR, the noble gases that don't get out via leaks are stored in storage tanks for 60 days and vented. In a BWR, they're going up the stack as they're going to be mixed with all of the other in-leakage gasses in the condenser. Next in trouble are cracks that can leach out soluble daughter products. That will load up the primary loop with daughter products that are quite active. Then at the worst end are fully ruptured pins that spill pellets. The pellets get battered into fine particles by the repeated trips through the loop at high velocity and generally make a mess. The particles are referred to as a "DRP" (Discrete Radiation Particle... nuclear plants love their acronyms). Most old plants have had events and the DRP is around. They're quite obvious to find if they ever get out as they're so intensely radioactive. You can tell they're there from across the room and with enough time can hone right in to a sand sized particle. To limit the primary activity, there are reactor cleanup systems. They extract a small stream of water from the primary (PWR) or reactor water (BWR), cool, for PWR only - degas, filter, ion exchange resin purify, filter again, for PWR only - gasify with H2, reheat and inject back to the reactor. That whole system is a good portion of the auxiliary building. This is also the primary source of solid waste when measured on an activity basis. In a BWR any gas in the reactor is leaving with the steam and will end up in the condenser Radio-hydrolysis is not a big deal in a BWR because the oxygen will be highly diluted by the steam. In a PWR, the degas step is needed because there will be radioactive noble gas coming out. In a PWR H2 is added going in so any oxygen radicals from radio-hydrolysis is quickly recombined with hydrogen in preference to attacking the metal. In addition, in a PWR, there will be steam generator water cleanup that is removing contamination. The primary source of ions will be residual ions in the feedwater, but there also will be ions from primary to secondary leakage and those are active. This system is one of the few places in the secondary system where they are designed to handle radioactive water. In normal use there will be some level of activity above background, but in the presence of a steam generator leak, the generator must be drained through the blowdown system before any repairs can be made.

[@trevorlambert4226]

I forgot Smithers used to be black. Did he get gradually more yellow, or all of a sudden?

[@emilphoryew9436]

Physical uranium has the weirdest smell and gives off a strange sensation (it's cancerous). I know this because my father has a set of mineral samples, and the uranium was one of them. We also invested in a uranium holding company. After the Fukushima disaster, the stock went down and never recovered.

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Hey thanks for the comment. What do you mean by physical uranium? Uranium ore?☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@emilphoryew9436]

@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist Right Elinitsa. Uranium (ore) is a metal but it's radioactive. To own uranium is to possess this metal. Imagine if mints made coins, medals and bullion bars out of uranium? A lot of folks would be coming down with cancer and tumors. The thing is in a sense there's a case to owning commodities such as this as an investment, but one needs to know the proper way to store it and be safe in not getting direct exposure to it. Interestingly, even a metal as seemingly innocent as nickel some people have allergies to and it is a metal many countries use in their common coinage.

[@John-ci8yk]

I dare you to watch the US government cartoon Duck and Cover. Thanks for the video and thumbs up.

[@shadowbeast2276]

Probably a very simplified way to explain nuclear energy but probably fairly accurate

[@caseycooper5615]

The little educational film parody is definitely geared to Americans who grew up between the 1950s - 1980s. The bit where he literally sweeps the nuclear waste under the rug is very idiomatic. To sweep something under the rug means to put a problem aside and hope it gets taken care of later, or becomes Someone Else's Problem. Very accurate about the American strategy for disposing of nuclear waste - we don't have one. You'll find the nuclear plant is absurdly mismanaged As Mr. Burns calls it, boobery. Also, watch out for Zutroy.

[@piotrcurious1131]

Hey, try to comment on Kate Brown's "Plutopia" , that would be far more interesting, esp. you will understand much more of the Simpsons sarcasm after that.

[@jwarmstrong]

There are large fans in the reactor room to keep air moving around the oxygen recombiners -

[@Tantalus010]

It could be a steam line from the steam generator to the turbine, or from the turbine back to the condenser. That would explain why they can just close a valve to stop the steam - it's part of the secondary loop. As for why that would be radioactive, I got nothing.

[@sonicmastersword8080]

Might be a boiling water reactor. That has radioactive steam.

[@채월Sky]

when he hid the radioactive under the carpet 🙃

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

Ahaha ☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@philip5090]

Hi Elina, can radioactivity cause mutations?

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

There are several studies that investigate both and even though it is hard to relate cancer or mutation to radiation, since there are so many reasons nowadays one can have them, id say the chances are increasing when one is exposed to radiation ☢️👩🏽‍🔬

[@BlueEclipse2305]

Is there any potential to recycle nuclear waste into a kind of fuel?

[@MannerdDesert7]

Thorium salt reactors can reuse current nuclear waste and reduce half-life of the waste produced to under 100 years instead of 1000’s of years.

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

I (potentially) have a really stupid question: if all those rods are doing is heating the water to create steam...wait, two questions: 1. How is this different from just regular steam power? 2. Why do we need nuclear to heat stuff? We've been making fire since forever.

[@sonicmastersword8080]

1. Not much different, just considerably more complex to maintain safe operation. 2. Energy density. The energy per unit quantity of nuclear is magnitudes above wood and coal.

[@DuffkaBigNerd]

It sucks things like the simpsons convinces people that nuclear is as dangerous as they make it seem.

[@rossrobertson674]

0:20 haha remember when Smithers was black 😆

[@No-tw6qj]

The legendary black smithers!

[@mellepasveer6173]

Love your vids but being a artist sometime's you have to deviate from the boring to make a story work " a story don't always has to be correct, if you to want it to be good"(my opinion)

[@chabengandsophietv736]

I dont actually watch ur videos, i only watch u bcoz ur so beautiful.

[@ThatJay283]

one thing i dont like about the nuclear industry (and also doesn't help misinformation), is how little transparency there is in terms of what goes on inside a running power plant. like, id love it if video cameras were allowed inside power plants, where people can go in and record stuff, without having to go through all the hoops kyle hill had to. im sure nuclear energy might be trusted far more if there was better transparency, like eg a tourist and the plant being able to just arrange a walk into a nuclear reactor, being supervised of course, with a geiger counter and a camera. instead, there are artist depictions like this, which while the depictions are funny (such as kids walking into a highly contaminated area where workers are), people will take as fact.

[@qborki]

You've mentioned the water isn't radioactive. Than why do powerplants have two or more separate water loops? I've always assumed it was to isolate the water that goes inside the reactor from the water that comes into contact with generators and other machinery. Can water actually become radioactive? It has oxygen that could possibly turn into something unstable. Not to mention various impurities and pipe particles.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

From what I understand there's neutron leakage through the piping which over time does generate isotopes, but the main purpose of the isolated loop is that any problem with the core stays inside the loop rather than enter the lake or river.

[@runrickyrun157]

Not as a reaction video, but just for enjoyment. You should watch the episode where Homer gets to quit the power plant.

[@ThatJay283]

yeah, making a mistake severe enough to (im assuming) put one/all of the reactor cores into scram is definitely very severe

[@CanadaMMA]

I loved The Simpsons growing up. This was one of the very first episodes ever. And nuclear waste might be a big problem, but I'd rather deal with that than all the CO2 we are currently pumping into the air. Nuclear waste isn't going to destroy the planet anytime soon.

[@dannygjk]

*Sweeping the nuclear waste under the rug* 😂

[@jorgezarco9269]

Harry Shearer saw VHS/VCR footage of Jerry Lewis' aborted 1972 film The Day The Clown Cried.

[@m1t2a1]

Don't worry. Homer has worked in sector 7G at the nuclear power plant for decades.

[@rockyBalboa6699]

There is nothing friendlier about Nuclear meltdown!!

[@markusklein1029]

I'd completely forgotten that Smithers was dark skinned in the first season.

[@robertmonaghan5420]

Elina is Awesome!

[@MichaelSHartman]

The movie was the most realistic I have seen in the few Simpsons that I have watched. The plant is absurdly unsafe, and more than a little bit unrealistic.

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

When I was younger, I used to think the nuclear materials themselves generated electricity through, I dunno... the electrons they gave off. Yeah, I was a dumb kid.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

That's a deduction that's smarter than most adults are capable of. We're just too good at steam turbines so we still focus on thermal energy instead of taking advantage of all energy releases.

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

3:38 can radiation cause mutations like that?

[@yellow01umrella]

Where did you receive your PhD?

[@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist]

I’ll answer that in a later Q&A video ☢️👩🏽‍🔬