I Went Into a Nuclear Plant and It Changed How I Think About Radiation - Smarter Every Day 309

[00:01] moment when two nuclear plant workers tell me how they really feel about the safety of their job. >> I wish the whole public knew how safe >> I wish the whole public knew how safe what we really did was considering how

[00:14] You agree with that? >> Yep. Absolutely. >> I think nuclear power would be uh would be 10fold what it is today if we had done a much better job of educating the public. Um, a lot of people come to me

[00:28] and they ask me, uh, you know, what is nuclear dangerous? I'm like, the people that I know, they retire out, they die of other natural causes, not related. There's not cancer. We don't have all these issues. You know, you'll hear a

[00:42] lot of propaganda sometimes outside of nuclear, but it's it's just one of the it is, man, it's one of the safest things that we ever did cuz for the most part, it's a very low amount of dose. occupational dose is exceptionally low.

[00:56] >> so I mean for for example we're talking operating the mill over here like a chest X-rays 10 milligram maybe >> a single X-ray >> single chest X-ray is like 10 mill and I won't see that in

[01:10] >> a year maybe depending on what you do some people will see more than that but >> Right. >> This is the second video in the Smarter Everyday deep dive series into nuclear power. I've always kind of instinctively

[01:23] but now I'm trying to understand it at its core, pun intended. And to do that, meeting the people that know this stuff, and I'm asking them the hard questions.

[01:35] I'm so excited about this whole series. And today's video is about radiation and how nuclear workers stay safe. Nuclear is a loaded word. It has an association with nuclear weapons, which is understandably scary. And there's other

[01:49] words like contamination and radiation. If you don't understand what's going on around the physics involved in these words, it can be quite frightening. Those two men that I just showed you in the video, they work around nuclear

[02:01] reactions every day and they've done it for decades and they're not afraid. It's clear to me that they have some kind of understanding I don't have. And I'm guessing you might not have that understanding either. We are about to

[02:13] receive training to enter an active nuclear power plant. At the end of this video, you and I are going to enter this nuclear power plant into a special area of the plant that has both contamination and radiation. And the hope is that when

[02:26] we're armed with this new understanding, we're going to be just as confident as these gentlemen are. Let's go get smarter every day and learn more about nuclear power. [Music]

[02:39] In the first video, we went out to Idaho National Lab where we saw EBR1, the world's first nuclear power plant. That particular plant was a fast reactor plant that also bred new fuel. That video laid the foundation for our

[02:54] understanding on how neutrons drive nuclear reactions. really cool. We're going to go to Browns Fairy Nuclear Power Plant here in North

[03:07] Alabama. This plant is a really, really big deal for my local area. It's Authority, and it contributes power to the grid for houses all over North Alabama and the surrounding area. So, after a long process to get permission

[03:21] to enter the plant, I got a phone call that said, "Hey, you need to come out shoot Smarter Everyday videos alone, just me and a camera. But every once in challenging, I asked my buddy George, who helps me make these videos, to tag

[03:35] today. We went out to Browns Fairy for the training. And George and I were talking about it. We were expecting maybe an hour, something simple. Okay, here we are. Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. We got to get trained on how to

[03:48] cool. >> This is Bill Ball. Bill was introduced dad worked. He then went into the Navy with nuclear submarines and now he runs a team at Browns Ferry that's in charge of making sure the plant is operational.

[04:01] This is my longtime buddy Philip. We've known each other forever. He's been my phone for over a decade simply as Neutron because he works at the nuclear he does. What are we doing today? >> Well, today we got to get you set up for

[04:14] what it boils down to. We got to test you. We're going to train you and test to see what you want to see. >> Okay. So, I've got to get one of these >> Yes, sir. Okay. Okay, cool. Sounds good. And you're going to do it?

[04:27] >> I'll be around. >> So, is Philip going to be my escort? Is >> I'm your escort right now. Philip's going to help, too. So, so, so us two around the training center. >> Okay, sounds great.

[04:39] >> Thank you. >> So, get you in and out of here. for the day, please. >> Bill really spearheaded getting us into instrumentation department at the plant. You'll get to know them a lot more as we

[04:51] go. We made our way down to a classroom where we were introduced to a guy named Roger who was in charge of our training. >> Give you all some CBT training today um for your dress out uh before it's the prerequisite for your dress out. It's

[05:04] going to talk about the radiation worker process uh checking in and all that fision process and things like that to you. Okay. >> sweet. >> I got you.

[05:16] dress out today? No, probably won't get to that today because this training here will take between 4 to 6 hours. Okay. >> So, we'll get that done today and then in the morning first thing. >> I've had the opportunity to visit some

[05:29] very incredible places and usually once you meet the security criteria and a certain person signs your badge or whatever, you can go in. It's not a big deal. This was very, very different because I had to take training and it

[05:42] wasn't just like, oh, sit down and let us talk to you for a few minutes. We're talking hours and hours and hours of computer-based training that we had to go through in order to to get access to this place. And they gave us an exam. We

[05:55] had to take an exam to make sure we could do it. This was far more intense than I expected. This was just day one of training. So, I didn't understand what I was getting into at all. And that fascinated me. It made me realize this

[06:07] is a different thing than anything I've ever done. I learned so much in this training. We even looked at the core of the reactor and how that works. And there's one thing that stuck out with me in particular that helped me understand

[06:19] radiation itself and and all the different ways radiation happens. So I run through it and then I'm going to show you it again one more time. Okay. So nuclear fision, we talked about this in the first episode. Uranium 235 splits

[06:34] into multiple atoms and when it does that uh there's this release of a tremendous amount of energy, right? But we didn't really talk about the radiation that's released as well. But that's also a thing. So we we have this

[06:48] event and we have these daughter products of uranium 235 splitting, but we also have radiation. And what they do in a nuclear plant is they control the areas where this radiation happens. And it's called the radiologically

[07:03] controlled area, the RCA. In the RCA, there's multiple types of radiation that can affect biological life and cells in your body, and they control them in different ways. Let's talk about the four types of radiation. The first one I

[07:17] want to talk about is called alpha. Alpha radiation happens when the components off these atoms fly off and you get something that looks like the nucleus of a helium atom, right? Two protons, two neutrons. So, it's really

[07:30] model. There's an extra neutron. Pretend that's not there. and it can fly off, but it's easy to stop. It can be stopped by something as simple as paper. So, if if this alpha radiation comes in contact with paper, it stops, which is cool

[07:44] because this means we can use anything thicker than paper to shield against alpha particles in our radiologically controlled area. The second type of radiation is called beta radiation. Now, beta decay uh usually is like an

[07:58] electron or even a posetron. Okay? So these electrons fly off, but they can fly right through paper. They go all the way. But but plastic can stop them, paper. You can stop it with plastic, though. Which is why I think this is

[08:12] very interesting. You'll see people in nuclear plants wearing safety glasses. protect from, you know, cutting things with a saw or anything like that. They're literally wearing safety glasses because this plastic, this polycarbonate

[08:25] right here, can stop beta radiation. It's very interesting. B beta is bad to ingest it. Uh you you don't want it in your eyes, things like that. So beta is something as simple as plastic. The third type of radiation that I want to

[08:41] look at, I think is probably the most interesting to me, and that's gamma radiation. Gamma radiation is not a particle. It's a wave, a very high frequency wave. It's it's higher frequency even than X-rays. It can go

[08:55] can go through plastic all the way through plastic. It goes all the way. And you're typically going to want to stop gamma with something like lead. You know how when you go to the dentist and they put this lead apron on you to stop

[09:08] the X-rays? Well, gamma is higher frequency than X-rays and it can penetrate things kind of like X-rays, but even even more energetic. So, it has to be stopped with something like lead. Okay. So, we have alpha, beta, gamma.

[09:22] There's another one that's fascinating and that is neutron radiation. Do you remember in the first episode we talked about this little guy? Wee little fast neutron. Well, neutron radiation comes off of this event and they're very, very

[09:34] of stuff. They're going to go past your paper, past your plastic, even lead. They usually have to be stopped by concrete, specifically concrete that has a high water content. An interesting thing about neutron radiation is it

[09:50] interacts with hydrogen atoms quite a bit and and that slows it down. And so if we had water, you could slow down neutrons with water. And so the people that work in a radiologically controlled area, they understand all the physics

[10:05] associated with alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron radiation. And they can control the environment by different types of shielding. And I think that's real quick is I want to show you just with one still shot right here. I want

[10:19] to show you where these different types of radiation stop because when I took this training, this is the visual that stuck in my mind. Okay, so for alpha radiation, it can be stopped by paper. For beta radiation, it's going to be

[10:33] stopped by plastic after it goes through that paper. And for gamma radiation, it can go straight through paper, straight through plastic. It can be stopped by something like lead. For neutron radiation, it interacts with hydrogen

[10:46] atoms and so it can be slowed down by water or in the absence of water, it can be stopped by something like concrete. This is how radiation is controlled in

[10:58] what's called the radiologically controlled area. This is how they shield against that kind of stuff. All of this describes radiation, which is a very that's very similar in my mind, contamination. These two things are

[11:12] different and Philip has a pretty interesting analogy to explain the >> Yeah. The the crudest way that was explained to me, but it stuck with me is if you imagine um your dog makes a mess in the yard.

[11:27] >> Uh-huh. It is if you walk up to it, you can smell it. It is affecting you. Um but you can walk away from it. However, if you were to step in it and then you

[11:39] track it in the house now, it is affecting all over the place. You are contaminated and you're spreading contamination. Makes sense. >> Okay, trust me on this. I I bought a plastic pile of dog poop to demonstrate

[11:51] this and then I realized this is an important concept and I want to learn this exactly once and never forget it. So, we're going all in. All right. This is my uh my friend's dog, Duchess. Duchess, come here. Good girl. All

[12:04] right. Here we go. Please forgive me for this uh analogy, have a very complicated setup here. I have multiple boards and um we're about

[12:17] to learn about contamination versus radiation. Okay, so I have some radiation. Okay, so I have some contamination right here. Right. Uh this is contamination. Um I don't like it. I do not like this at all. Notice how I

[12:29] take this glove off. That's going to be important later. So, uh, right now in important later. So, uh, right now in this room, there is a smell radiating from this dog poop right now. It's awful. I don't like it. Um, I'm a little

[12:42] sad at my my life choices. However, there's a smell coming off. How do I know that? Like, how do I know that there's a smell happening that's unpleasant? And the answer is, I have a nose. And that nose is a detector that

[12:56] I'm using to detect that smell that's radiating from the dog poop. Right? But what about this radiation right here? We we have this unstable atom that has some kind of radiation that's coming off of it. It looks like it's gamma. How do we

[13:11] know where that is? I don't have a detector on my body that can tell me that. By the time I can feel it or anything, it's way too late. Okay. So, radiation workers or I guess nuclear workers is the proper term have a very

[13:24] special thing called a doce. This is a DAD, a digital alarming dose. in the way that my nose sends a signal to my brain that says, "Hey, something's bad and it's probably poop." That isn't in my body. But what this does is it makes a

[13:38] noise with a little speaker and I can hear that and that tells me, "Oh, I hear that and that tells me, "Oh, I might be around radiation." So, this digital alarming domter detects the radiation coming away from those uh

[13:52] nuclear atoms, whatever that is. Okay. So, let's say that I want to do some So, let's say that I want to do some form of work in a nuclear plant in a special room. Okay, I'm in this room and I want to go in here and do something.

[14:04] Oh, but there's there's a problem. I've got a pipe and there's water flowing in the pipe, but there seems to be some type of uh like radioactive particles that have collected in the bottom of this valve. Do you see that? Okay. Well,

[14:17] that's probably not a great place to go in there. So, how do I know if I can come in the room or not? How do I know if it's safe for me to go in? Let's just hide in the safe area first. How do I know? Well, let's think about it. So, if

[14:29] we have different types of of radiation uh coming off of these isotopes, then let's think about what we can do. We have alpha, beta, gamma, neutron. Well, cuz that's mostly in the core of the reactor. So, let's don't think about

[14:44] that right now. So, alpha stops at paper. Beta stops at plastic. So, we they're contained in the steel pipe. But think about this gamma. This gamma could because you need something heavy like lead to stop it, right? So le let's look

[14:58] at our little dog poop analogy. What could we do to prevent the smell? Oh, here's the thing we could do. We could put a little cover over the dog poop so the smell could no longer get to us. And and since we know that lead stops gamma,

[15:13] earlier, right? We've got that that lead blanket from the dentist office. You remember that? So, is there a way we could wrap lead around this area of the pipe that has contamination in it to protect us in the room? And actually,

[15:27] there is. You can just wrap that entire pipe uh with lead and suddenly it prevents gamma from getting out into the room and it protects the person. So, just like we were able to shield the dog poop to get over here, if we put lead

[15:44] over that radiation like that, then we can prevent the gamma from getting over here to where we are. So, that's a really interesting technique. So, that's the first way that a nuclear worker can protect themselves in a room with

[15:57] contamination. They can use shielding, which is very interesting. They they are what's the other thing we do? All right, let's go back and look at our turd analogy here. So, if I had to do some work around this dog poop and I got

[16:10] close, like the closer I get, the more uncomfortable I feel. And you can see it with the nose even, like if I come in close. Oh man, it smells so bad. I got to get away. If I change my distance, then I can I can keep myself safe. So, I

[16:24] I would want to work here if I can control that. Right? So that's the second way that a nuclear worker can protect themselves from uh radiation or contamination is keeping your distance from the source. Okay, so we've got

[16:38] third thing we would do? We would do if if I had to work around that dog poop right there. Man, I just it smells bad in this room. I would want to like get out of the room as quickly as possible. So that's another thing we can do. We

[16:51] can just go over, do our work, and get out of there really fast. So that's there, get out. Okay, that's called time. So, shielding, distance, time. Those are the three tools that nuclear workers have to protect themselves from

[17:06] radiation. And this actually has a name. It's a program that's called we want to keep our radiation exposure as low as reasonably achievable. Okay? And they

[17:18] call that inside the plant, they call that the ARA program. So basically nuclear workers want to limit their their exposure by applying shielding, keeping their distance and limiting the amount of time that they are around any

[17:31] kind of nuclear source, which I think is really interesting. And if you think things work here. Man, I just want to get out of this room. But oh no. Oh, okay. Oh goodness. This is this is a big

[17:47] deal. So, we no longer just have to think about the radiation. We now have contamination because that water was in that pipe where where those radioactive particles were and now it's dripped on the floor. So, so if we have to do any

[18:03] work in there, we this could happen. We we could walk over here, we could do our work, but on our way out there's a very high likelihood that we might actually we might actually track that stuff out. And because it was from that pipe with

[18:17] the particles in it, we could spread that contamination. This is a big deal and we have to think about what to do here. We need to call somebody. So, so plant. If there's a spill or anything like that, biggest of deals, you have to

[18:31] it in a very intelligent way. So, you call these special people. They come out with special meters and they they check everything and they have special and they'll they'll clean everything up and they'll make sure that everything's

[18:44] safe. so that work can continue. One of the things that's very important, the whole area of the nuclear plant has an inner area inside it that's called the I referenced that earlier. This is a very special concept. It's like a

[18:59] section of the plant that's contained and every individual source is located and quantified for its radiological effects. And so before you go into a plant, you have to check with the authorities and they tell you, "Okay, if

[19:13] you're going to that area, there's a special valve over there that's hot. So you need to keep your distance or limit your time around it." This concept of your time around it." This concept of the RCA is very, very important for All

[19:25] because that's how they control where everything is. And so if there's a spill and it changes the area, they document all that in the RCA documentation and you know where to go and what to do when you're there. So these are the main

[19:38] concepts that I learned in that training and it was really good training went along with it. We got to learn how the core of the reactor worked which I really enjoyed. But the last thing is you have to take an exam. Now I'm an

[19:51] my ability to hang in with all this stuff. You know, I think I get it. George, however, theater major. A little concerned about George's ability to get nervous for George. Let's go see how he did.

[20:04] worry about it. >> Review your results. >> I got a 92. What'd you get? >> 96. too. >> Hey, we got it. High five.

[20:18] >> Years ago, I reached out to a company and I said, "Hey, what you're doing is amazing. Would you please consider sponsoring Smarter Every Day because I want to tell people about what you're doing?" And that's Kiwi Co. Kiwi Co.

[20:31] sends these boxes to your house. They call them crates. And these crates come with instructions and all kinds of hardware inside. Everything a child needs to make a really cool project is in this box. And it will help them learn

[20:45] and it's awesome. This is my daughter. My daughter loves building things. She loves art and she loves working with her hands. And today I'm going to give her the lightup infinity mirror which is part of the Kiwi Co. Labs line of

[20:59] crates. and she's going to give her best shot at making a circuit for the first The cool thing about this project is it involves optics, electronics, it even

[21:11] has some mechanical like gears and stuff in there. She hasn't done a lot of this stuff. If it doesn't work, you flip back a couple of pages and you find where you messed up and you fix it. I love that about Kiwi Co. and the kids love it,

[21:24] too, because when you get done, you've got this thing that you built. So, this Infinity Mirror, for example, check this out. I'm so grateful for KiwiCo because all of my kids have learned different things through Kiwi Co. throughout the

[21:37] clubs you can pick from. There's Panda, Sprout, there's Labs with three different age groups and labs. There's World and Studio. And you can tailor the KiwiCo experience to the interest of the child you love. You are smart. I know

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[22:17] the sponsor. So, thank you so much for doing that. kiwic.com/smarter. on site that housed more hands-on training, and we met Tim Lawson. Tim is

[22:29] what's called an RP instructor, radiation protection. I learned that RP professionals in nuclear plants are very important. They're like the watchd dogs or the scouts that are constantly looking around the plant to keep the

[22:42] workforce safe from radiation. Tim briefed us on something called an RWP or radiological work permit. These are very, very important. Anything that happens in the plant, you first have to get an RWP and you have to be given

[22:57] specific instructions about what you're going to do, what your radiation limits are while you're there. It's a very important guide that people use anytime they enter the RCA or radiologically controlled area. So, here we have a an

[23:10] RWP and this will be the RWP we'll be using today going through out here. So, um it is all units uh reactor building general area activities. This RP um has

[23:23] medium radological risk and the RWP set points are 80 millm for the dose alarm and 80 millm per hour for the dose rate alarm. This unit that the RWP says

[23:36] millimm I have no frame of reference for what that means at this point. And a little bit later Tim explained like the scale of miller rim. I'll just let you listen to that now. you see negligible effects before 50,000 mil ram 50 rim

[23:52] effects before 50,000 mil ram 50 rim 50,000 millm the stations the NRC's 50,000 millm the stations the NRC's limit is 5,000 millm but then the station lowers that to the maximum of 2,000 millm so your threshold for for

[24:08] any biological effects is 50,000 milligram and we are so far below that >> have you ever seen a fundraiser where the town will put a big thermometer out in town square and as people donate it'll fill up the thermometer. Well,

[24:22] limits you're allowed working at a nuclear plant. So Tim just said that 50,000 millerm is what's required in order for biological effects to happen to your body. Right now in this case

[24:35] that's way in the sky. That's off the board. Okay. I'm looking at 2,000 millm Ferry nuclear power plant. And this is how I think it works. So first of all,

[24:47] as a human on Earth, you are going to be exposed to radiation just as a function of being on Earth. Like that's cosmic rays and stuff like that hitting you. You're going to get radiation just in the background of your everyday life.

[25:01] But because you are a nuclear worker that works at a nuclear plant and today you're going to get a radiological work permit an RWP and you're going to read it and you're going to say, "Oh, well today I can get 80 milligram and my dose

[25:13] rate alarm is 80 milligram." So what that means is I can go into the plant and I can do my work and that's my limit. So let's say I went and I did my work and I got like 35 millm. Okay. Well, I would just add that to my little

[25:28] thermometer and tomorrow you do it and you got maybe 40. And so you do this over and over and over and it's cumulative. The amount of radiation you're exposed to over the course of a year adds up. But let's say tomorrow you

[25:43] part of the plant that has a hot spot. There's more radiation there and you might get more radiation than typical. Well, that's okay. As long as the RWP allows it, you're allowed to get that dosage of radiation. So this goes up up

[25:57] up and they keep up with how much radiation each individual worker receives over the course of their job. Now there's two ways that nuclear workers can measure this. The first way is called a DAD, a digital alarming

[26:12] dose. Now a DAD is pretty interesting. It works kind of like an old school pager that measures radiation. Now I'm assuming it measures gamma. I don't interesting how it works because it's doing two things. It's measuring a rate,

[26:27] meaning on my RWP it says I can get 80 milligram per hour. So basically the up. That's what this measures. There's another thing you can use and that's called the doimeter of legal record. Now this one works a little differently. A

[26:43] doimeter of legal record looks like this. It's like a little thing that you wear kind of like a name tag looking thing. And this thing measures the accumulative effects of being exposed to radiation. So a DLR, basically how that

[26:58] works is you wear it for three months and then after that or some some unit of they can look at it and they can say, "Oh, you got this much radiation in that time period." I'm assuming it's like some film in there and they'll they'll

[27:11] Something like that. Not sure how it works, but these are the two tools that you can use to figure out how much radiation each worker is exposed to. So a DAD a digital alarming dose that gives you the rate and you can use math to

[27:25] figure out what the total dosage that you've received is and a DLR a doimeter of legal record that gets you just the totals over a certain period of time. totals over a certain period of time. All this is meant to give you an allara

[27:37] compliance the as low as reasonably achievable goal. So these are not amounts of radiation you receive on that RWP. This is the upper limit. You don't RWP. This is the upper limit. You don't want to go over these numbers. And a

[27:50] that works at a nuclear plant that's really good at their job, they will keep this number as low as possible, which I think is really interesting. Now, I understand all this, but what I don't have a feel for is what do these numbers

[28:03] mean? Like 2,000 millm, like how does that compare to other things? So I asked him like, "How does this compare to other professions like radiation techs or people that are working in the medical field that are doing X-rays all

[28:17] day? H how does this nuclear program for Aara, how does that measure against pretty funny. >> The medical field that scares the hell out of me. What those people do with their isotopes is uh man, they need the

[28:34] LC on them. But but they're not regulated by the NRC. We are so both of my sons work here. Um I feel like it is one of the which is near and dear to me. Um I feel like it is absolutely safe enough to where my children can be here

[28:48] and uh and have a very good career and uh it's it's a it's a good place to be. >> After we finished our classwork, it was time to head next door for hands-on training. So, so the RP people in a nuclear plant, you're kind of like the

[29:03] mother may like if I need to do something, I need to check to make sure that the area is safe. You guys have the equipment, you know how to how to clear >> Yeah, that's correct. So, what we'll do is we have a frequency of surveying uh

[29:17] every zone. So, kind of like kind of like the Marines, we go first every time. If it needs lighting in an area that's dark, you go in with a headlamp on and your meter, which tells you the radiation because you can't see it,

[29:31] smell it, or taste it. So, we go in with our meters. We go in in the dark. We monitor for conditions. When we have those conditions, we come out and we tell the person who's going to go in and hang the lights. Hey, here's where the

[29:43] radiation's at. Here's where the hazards are at. and uh and here's where you are allowed to go and here's where you need to avoid because these are dangers which are going to exceed your your radiation work permit. You know, it exceeds the

[29:56] >> And so what you're about to do is you're about to test me on my ability to to to pass or I'm going to fail. Right. >> That is correct. Before we went into the mockup of the radiologically controlled area, I had to learn how to get checked

[30:10] in with a software system that tracks workers and their RWPs and the dosages as they enter and exit the RCA. I got my two mockup doceimters and reviewed our >> Click yes, you've acknowledged that you have read and understand. And when you

[30:23] do this, >> do alarm 40 millm. And so that's how much I can be exposed. >> No, that's how much you can receive. >> That's how much I can receive. Thank you. And the maximum rate that the this

[30:36] hour. >> Right? So if you walk into 80 mill an hour, it's going to alarm while you're standing in the 80 mill an hour. And as it occurs 10 millm, 15 millm, 20 millm. If it gets 240, it's going to alarm and

[30:51] it's not going to stop alarming and you're going to have to exit and see RP. Um, got it. And to prevent that, we look at our doceimeter every 10 to 15 minutes while we're inside of a radiation area. And then that's going to activate the

[31:04] domter and it gives you your allowable set point. So So right now the station >> Uhhuh. >> And but it's only going to give you 40

[31:16] millm for this single entry. Even though you have nearly two rim, you can still only pick up 40 millm for this single entry. Tim then showed me how the turn styles work off of your doceimeter. And then I got dressed out according to the

[31:28] specifications laid out in the RWP with boots and gloves and a head covering. and the airlock procedures and we headed into the mockup area. And I was a little from the RWP, but Tim reminded me that I have a little white trip ticket that the

[31:42] had all the stuff listed out for me. >> Your trip ticket tells you how much dose you can accumulate and how much dose you can walk into. So you have that on your trip ticket. So the only thing you have

[31:55] to really have in your head is what the conditions are inside of this uh contaminated area. And as we discussed on the briefing, here's a survey map here. So we see that just inside this

[32:08] stepff. And I don't reach across the boundary. It's 2 millime an hour right there. It's 5 millm right over here. It's 8 to 10 over by the high radiation area on one side. and it's 8 to 10 down that side of

[32:21] the high radiation area. Noticing the boundary is continuous. And it's a continuous boundary so that no one accidentally walks into an area while they're just looking up at something else cuz a lot of people walk on a plan

[32:33] their mind other than where the boundary is at. So that's a continuous boundary. So you're going into check the following uh unit IDs. So I've got a list of IDs look at my doymmetry and make sure it was turned on before I went into the

[32:48] area. Okay. still on because you we do have digital issues like the world does. Okay, the doimeter is on. When I first walked into the mockup, I was being about making a video, but after the fact, I realized this is interesting and

[33:03] I asked if I could take my camera back in there and I filmed things from my perspective so you could see it. So, I edited this together so you could get an idea of what I was looking at while Tim was showing me things. So, uh, you'll

[33:16] filming this the best. >> All right. there's not a barrier here, as we discussed, like the high radiation area, which is a yield sign, which is a caution. So, there's no barrier here.

[33:28] step path. >> Okay, this gets interesting pretty fast. So, this is the map of the area that I'm going to be operating in, right? You can see we have a large contaminated area or the radiation area. And up here in the

[33:41] corner, we have a high radiation area. So, what I'm supposed to do is I as I enter right here is I go to the low dosage waiting area immediately. I misread this map like right off the get- go and I immediately walked all the way

[33:56] across and I thought this was the low dosage waiting area right over here by this pipe and I just hung out there which was the wrong thing to do. So, uh yeah, that's how I started. I started off wrong. So you're looking for um

[34:09] off wrong. So you're looking for um label number one is uh unit ID 2-P label number one is uh unit ID 2-P which is for pump 2-PMP- which is for pump 2-PMP- 075-0020

[34:25] >> I'm seeing a pump over there. I'm not going there yet. I'm just trying to map out where I'm going because I want to be there for a minimum amount of time. >> Yes. So, I'm going to go over and you're just going to verify the ID. No, that's

[34:39] >> Hey. Hey, that wrench is not supposed to be. Can you grab that wrench? >> I will not grab that wrench. >> That is very That is very good. That's exactly That's a Now, why wouldn't you? >> Because that's the high radiation area

[34:51] >> Hey, would you straighten that hose if you don't mind >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm thinking I can't really get >> right? Yeah. So, you don't want to do you don't want to cross the FMA barrier.

[35:07] we discussed is, you know, foreign material exclusion. So, we >> Well, you want to be Yeah. You want to you want to log and document everything >> tool that passes the barrier. Correct. >> Tim continued to ask me to do different

[35:21] environment. And these were basically ways to distract me. And so, he would break radiation protocol. he would see if I would catch it. And so it was fun. When George and another TVA employee

[35:34] watch. And you'll notice that they're waiting in the correct lowd dosage training helped us piece together a lot of the information in our heads into a simple set of behavior rules that would minimize our radiation exposure.

[35:48] >> So shielding. So that's shielding. That's temporary shielding. That is temporary shielding. And that is lead. So what if we had to do maintenance on lead shielding if I >> um I'm assuming if I got permission in

[36:01] >> um I'm assuming if I got permission in my RWP, but it's not in my RWP. >> It's it's not. So to remove lead shielding, RP would have to be present that shielding, the dose rates are going to increase.

[36:13] remove the shielding. >> Correct. RP would have to be here and be there. That's correct. So Tim had me follow the procedures for taking off my protective gear, which had to be done in a very specific way in order to minimize

[36:26] >> Okay. >> Yep. Now, I I'll note this. When you when you peeled it off, it it came like >> If it had something on the bottom of it, it would sling it onto the clean area.

[36:41] likely area to get a clean area contamination because of the migration shoe when it when it's sprung, >> it'll spring out onto the ground. >> So, I just rubber band shot a potential hazard that way.

[36:56] >> So, what I like to do is, and it's just a technique, is as I undress, I face >> And I pull everything off inward. >> Oh. >> And then like like a doctor would back up to a door. I finished taking off my

[37:08] protective gear and exited the radiation area. And then he had me scan myself for possible contamination, which again was supposed to be done in a very specific test, but struggled to do it in terms of a practical application. He then took me

[37:22] over and showed me how I would exit the RCA, which entailed having a full body scan done. And then, of course, I checked back out with my doceimters with messed up the lowd dosage waiting area, but it was time for Tim to give me his

[37:35] on the speed of which you were frisking. Yes. you on the second attempt though once I told you you knew the speed. So but you were inside of the area. >> Oh that's so you didn't look at it. So

[37:48] >> that's a big deal. Yeah. >> Well it's the first indicator that dose be. You did a perfect job on dress out. You used all the tools that were available to you. So I mean your dose is your bank account for your life and and

[38:02] you kept it. So, so I was so distracted by the task. >> I didn't think about the radiation. I mean, I was thinking about it because of head, but I wasn't thinking about what I was actually receiving at the moment.

[38:15] And and that's a great point for why radiation protection concentrates solely security, when they're walking around the plant, they're looking for guilty people. They're looking for holes in the system. Yeah. They're not thinking about

[38:30] looking for leaks and steam and and they're wondering why is that line hot when it shouldn't be hot. That's their focus. Our focus is strictly radiation. world scenario. I I really appreciate the time. Thank you so much for teaching

[38:44] >> Absolutely. Good job. And now when I submit this paperwork, you will be fully >> Okay. We are now certified. We have moved from knowledge about nuclear plants to understanding. So, we're about to go into the plant and Bill's going to

[38:57] say a lot of things as he takes us in, but you now know what these terms mean. you know what's going on. >> All right. So, here's what we're going You're going to put your dad on here.

[39:10] you're all good. You get the green light and we'll go in. hard hat, sir, >> safety glasses, >> Yes, sir. >> Good to go.

[39:24] >> Good to go. Great.

[39:37] into is the secondary containment area. Right. You'll notice that there's some watertight doors. We do this intentionally because this is our absolute last means if something bad happen, that's where we keep it all. We

[39:49] just to make sure we keep all containment products inside secondary containment products inside secondary containment if something were to happen.

[40:09] cuz there's less traffic to go over this. And before we go any further, when you see the floor drains, don't step on those. They're a lot of times contaminated. Okay. So, be looking for floor drains.

[40:23] floor drains. [Music]

[40:35] nuclear plant as a part of the nuclear power deep dive series. I am so incredibly excited. I'm going to show you something. It doesn't seem like it could be real. It's real. This is where we're going in the next video. We're

[40:48] we're going in the next video. We're going to go over an open reactor core as they refuel it. You're going to be right there on a bridge on top of this thing and we're going to get to look down into the reactor core. It is so incredibly

[41:03] fascinating. Now that we understand the radiation and how contamination works, like to walk through the plant and we're going to see like how that reactor works and we're going to understand it. It's so so fascinating. So, a big thanks to

[41:18] everybody that supports Smarter Everyday over at Patreon. You make this happen. So very excited about this. If you would like to be notified when the next video in the nuclear power series comes out, I've got an email list. You can go to

[41:30] smarter everyday.com and just fill out the email list thing there and I will send you an email when the video comes out. But we have so much to learn as a part of this series. We still have so much to learn at Idaho National Labs.

[41:43] Like there's so many things that go into making nuclear power happen and it's with me cuz I'm grateful that I get to learn this and I get to learn it with you and that's really cool. We get to do this together and it's fun. So big

[41:57] thanks to TVA and Browns Fairy Nuclear Plant for allowing us to do this. I'm grateful. I'm learning so much. So yeah, consider subscribing to Smarter Everyday if you haven't done that. And uh I'll see you on the next nuclear power deep

[42:11] dive video. That's it. I'm Destin. You're getting smarter every day. Have a good one. Bye. [Music]