Remote Repair and Modification of the HRE-2 Core Vessel

This is an old US Atomic Energy Commission video about the Homogeneous Reactor Experiment-2, an early fluid fueled aqueous homogeneous rector, being repaired. More info: whatisnuclear.com/news/2023-0...
Illustrates the remote repair and modification of the HRE-2 core vessel, following the formation of two holes which permitted transfer of fuel to the blanket side of the reactor. Shows how special equipment had to be designed for repairing the HRE-2, and the problems involved in working with the reactor where the radiation level in the vessel was greater than 100,000 Roentgen per hour.
Digitized in 4K by whatisnuclear.com
Courtesy of the National Archives
00:00 Intro
01:14 Description of HRE-2 systems
03:09 Description of core vessel and first hole
04:22 Remote viewing and diagnostics
05:02 This is the hole
05:18 Full-scale mockup flow tests
07:14 Repair and modification plans
08:17 Access options and hazards
09:10 Development and testing of repair tools
10:59 Blanket viewing device
11:34 Articulated TV camera
12:23 Underwater cutting of diffuser plates
14:48 Cleaning tools
15:21 Thermoplastic hole impression device
16:30 Specimen removal saw
17:55 Patch placement tool and patching
19:23 Upper hole patch with dissolvable head
20:06 Tool contamination precautions
20:35 The actual repair
21:28 Resuming operation at low power

[@laminat0996]

Reminds of a joke about gynecologist becoming car mechanic and repairing the engine through the exhaust pipe

[@spackerinternational6131]

With the right tools it's possible 🤷

[@IITDh]

This repair job is truly a multidisciplinary work! People form mechanical engineering, nuclear, chemical and material science disciplines work together and fix the reactor.

[@FreejackVesa]

That's the promise and the problem of nuclear reactors. With proper training and procedure they are pretty safe. Even with the accidents that have occurred, compared to the number in service and the time in service, it's incredibly safe. But at the same time it's not just something anyone can run. I think a coal plant could probably be figured out fairly easily, but with a nuclear reactor if anything is off it's a major and expensive repair job. I'm still pro nuclear by a long shot though

[@obsidianjane4413]

Wow. Its amazing what they could accomplish with '50s technology when cost was literally no object.

[@railgap]

The idea there was no budget would have caused strained laughter among the people who actually worked on such projects. You literally have no idea what you are talking about. You literally should read a literal book, because I'm literally not sure how literate you are.

[@Ganiscol]

"Piling up on the national debt since 1954 - It's the American way, it's the only way!"

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

Cost was no object for the F-35 and it sucks.

[@supersst838]

@@naughtiusmaximus830 thats not 50's tech either

[@yellowwhale66]

​@@naughtiusmaximus830 f35 is great

[@hellraizer322]

I am simply amazed by the ingenuity and engineering prowess of the workers who repaired the HRE-2 core vessel. The conditions they were working in were incredibly hazardous, with radiation levels that were off the charts. Yet they were able to develop and use specialized tools and equipment to diagnose and repair the holes in the vessel remotely. This video is a testament to the incredible skills and dedication of these workers. It is also a reminder of the important role that nuclear technology can play in our society.

[@douro20]

There are still aqueous homogeneous reactors in operation. One of the most prominent of these in current use is the ARGUS reactor at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow which is currently used to produce medical radioisotopes. The isotopes themselves are extracted chemically from the fuel solution and have been found by Belgian scientists to be of extremely high radiochemical purity, exceeding established radiopharmaceutical standards by 2-4 orders of magnitude. Currently operating reactors of this design often employ nitrate based fuel rather than sulfates due to the lower risk of corrosion.

[@dustrider5274]

Makes me thankful for today's bore scopes.

[@Dodgevair]

My dad installed the trigga reactor on the Univ of Texas campus back in the '60s. I remember swimming in what would become the containment vessal....water was cold...lol

[@hooviedoovie5220]

Yeah you didn't do that. No fucking way.

[@railgap]

Liar.

[@bower31]

@@hooviedoovie5220 Literally see no reason not

[@Ganiscol]

@@hooviedoovie5220 1960's at some U-campus? Of course that is plausible. It probably was a pool party with all the kids and a BBQ.

[@AustralLabs]

So the austinites lived years with this soft contraption downtown?

[@65gtotrips]

This is some crazy cool engineering ! -> I’ll never use another drywall toggle bolt without thinking of this video. 😊

[@erg0centric]

There is nothing a toggle bolt cannot fix.

[@heintmeyer2296]

"Thus, the practicality of extremely difficult and totally unanticipated maintenance of circulating fuel reactors was demonstrated" Now that is how you finish a report asking for more funding for a project that has been a total catastrophe!

[@philipnasadowski1060]

Meanwhile, GE, Westinghouse, Combustion Engineering, and Bacock and Wilcox were filling their order books with light water plants. This turd went nowhere, but sucked up research dollars for....something. The Westinghouse 4 loop reactor went on the be the gold standard in the industry, while this thing went on to be a footnote in history.

[@ScumfuckMcDoucheface]

Oh man, what a facinating and bad ass video. Thanks so much for sharing this man. =)

[@rarbiart]

any second i expected the narrator to reveal facts about the new turbo encabulator and it's six hydrocoptic marzlevanes.

[@JamieSteam]

The fuel is an acid, at 300°c, at 2000 psi, undergoing fission at 5 million watts! Truly a hostile environment.

[@curtwuollet2912]

What could go wrong?

[@Ganiscol]

@@curtwuollet2912 you would never know, they'd make sure of that! 😅

[@AustralLabs]

Safety was not a concern

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

@@curtwuollet2912I know! Replace the coolant with highly reactive sodium metal!

[@Sm0rezDev]

so that's where the fiction nuclear waste barrels come from as its liquid..

[@oculusangelicus8978]

Talk about Bleeding edge technology! I had no idea that ultrasound transducers existed back in the 1950s, that must have been brand new technology back then and the cost of such tech would have been prohibitive for all but the nuclear power industry, or such as it was back then. This set up must have been used in the development of weapons grade plutonium or at least an integral part of it. I wonder how ling this reactor remained operational after its repair? I doubt that it would have lasted very much longer and would have been shut down and buried , since taking it out would have been a bad thing. This is why these experimental reactors were located next to hell's breakfast out in the middle of nowhere. Several of those experimental reactors suffered accidents that made them useless and were shut down, and the radioactive material from the reactor meltdown was buried out behind the building and then sectioned off to prevent people from ever accessing the land ever again.

[@hmbpnz]

I am a new subscriber to your channel and find the amazing films that you are posting to be extremely fascinating. THANK YOU!

[@michalrzmichalrz6656]

Absolutely amazing. The patience!

[@FreejackVesa]

Sure the patience but also ignoring it (or at least letting it happen with foreknowledge) for two years! I guess they had their reasons, but a containment failure is a big problem engineering as it brings into question the stability of the entire vessel.

[@michalrzmichalrz6656]

@@FreejackVesa Yeah, IIRC they mentioned 100 000 Roentgens per hour in the inactive vessel. Massive...

[@juslitor]

very ingenious instruments invented for inspection and repair. Although one must wonder why they were so happy go lucky in their approach to the whole project,, planning for worst case contingencies are a must these days.

[@NotSure416]

16:30 "Specimen removal tool". Yeah, that's a hole saw. lol

[@irishtino1595]

The last bit, the restart date of the reactor November 7th, 1960 - day I was born. Jezuz I'm old.

[@jeremyindenver]

Wow, what a great video!

[@marvintpandroid2213]

" we found a hole and continued to use it "😱

[@FreejackVesa]

Yeah, I was rather surprised at that. Overall nuclear is pretty safe as long as you handle the waste correctly and it doesn't go critical out of control. Still, a compromised vessel to an engineer is a huge red flag and I'd think they'd stop using it.

[@marvintpandroid2213]

@@FreejackVesa It was a simpler time.

[@FreejackVesa]

@@marvintpandroid2213 Pepperidge Farms remembers the hole in our containment vessel

[@MitzvosGolem1]

Awesome 👍

[@hmbpnz]

Absolutely fascinating....the madness I fear while they're building this stuff and I say to myself: "That's going to get extremely radioactive. How are you going to fix that pump if it fails?" Then I watch this and they have to patch holes in the core vessel itself....truly an amazing time, even though it all seems desperately futile right now. Maybe it's almost time for a second nuclear renaissance...?

[@jfbeam]

Today, we'd fill it with cement and build another one.

[@69dblcab]

Thank You.

[@Yaivenov]

100,000 Röntgen/hour on the inside. When shut down. 😮

[@killman369547]

I know right. If that's how much radiation was in there after being shut down for a few days i can only imagine the radiation level when it was running.

[@jimsvideos7201]

I wonder what they considered an acceptable dose back then.

[@FreejackVesa]

I love well designed single use highly specific equipment and instrumentation. I wonder where the periscope and light system is today? Maybe in some ware house? Melted down? And some of that analog lab equipment looks entirely custom, I couldn't identify them. The one used for determining the thickness of the vessel wall looked particularly interesting.

[@whatisnuclear]

I also love those tools. I'm sure they're all buried in low-level radioactive waste landfills now.

[@FreejackVesa]

@@whatisnuclear you're right - I finished watching the video after my comment and they said that all the tools were radioactive and had to be destroyed/disposed of accordingly. Such a shame, but understandable, I would have loved to take a look at them if it were possible.

[@killman369547]

I wonder how the reactor performed with the modifications.

[@LuciFeric137]

Amazing. Id never heard of this reactor. It reminds me of Zubrins uranium salt water rocket design. Theoretically capable of .04 C

[@Mikeb8134]

nice

[@phenohunter2504]

Urinal sulfate? Very clever siphoning what's needed off of urinals

[@robinpage2730]

Uranium oxyhydroxide sulfate

[@vapormissile]

Scotty, while Spock is getting cooked: "the ray. ... diation."

[@sim-sam]

oh yeah, very, very safe thourgh and through...

[@rtqii]

1:40 - A heavy water solution of uranyl sulfate, copper sulfate, and sulfuric acid on the low pressure side. I bet you that solution is completely non-corrosive. I wonder how it would be possible to eat through metal?

[@maxasaurus3008]

🤯

[@davidm2645]

Interesting that they dubbed in music. What was the reason for music?

[@MichaelVLang]

What about the turboencabulator?

[@danillo.eu.rodrigues]

I was wondering what the Holy Roman Empire had to do with a nuclear energy channel and core vessels

[@mohinderkaur6671]

Contaminated tools likely disposed off on ebay or craigs list

[@Tore_Lund]

A technical overview engineering video about a nuclear test reactor, with music from Tom & Jerry! So YT professional engineering videos nowadays with ridiculous background music, is not something new?

[@Peter_S_]

This is what today's videos are copying. The 1950s and 1960s were full of 'filler music'.

[@Awesomes007]

Holy sh*t. I would have just thrown the whole nuclear facility in the river and built a new one.

[@killman369547]

And contaminated an entire river? Well to be fair the Russians did it too so you wouldn't be the first.

[@erg0centric]

Beer atom fission achieved.

[@chrisingle5839]

America today would simply give up. No one smart enough to do it anymore.

[@petevenuti7355]

I wouldn't say that, there's always a few.. Nowadays good luck finding one who would want to work even if paid well .. or anyone willing to even pay a fair wage. Went from a $20 a week mortgage on a $5000 house, same house today almost $1000 a week on a $500000 house , but wages only went from $50 to $400 Cost of rent went from like 30% of salary to 130% how is anyone supposed to do anything?

[@heintmeyer2296]

Now that's what i call a hot mess...

[@AustralLabs]

Murr complex! Murr complex!

[@thefathermind327]

For some unknown reason all those guys have since died of cancer....