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present:
Balcones Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab
(Click here to view student pictures from this trip!)
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While the events of September 11 caused our field trips to the power generation sites we had planned to be cancelled, oddly enough the one place that we were able to gain access to was a nuclear site. This facility is part of the University of Texas at Austin and is located at the Balcones Research Center’s Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory in North Austin. Sean O’Kelly was kind enough to give us a tour of the building and explained many of the workings of a nuclear fission reactor. Click on pictures below to see enlarged versions of the thumbnail listed below.
Comments:
“The place was fun because we got to see the control rods and look down in the water.” Stacey
“It was interesting because I had never been near a nuclear reactor and I hadn’t seen such big things. It had very clear water you could see through. The control room is interesting also” Sharon
“Since it the nuclear reactor was so far down I was afraid of dropping my glasses in while looking down.” Lydia
“At Balcones I saw the long control rods in the water and if you looked in it you can see the bottom.” Kaelie
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