NSE graduate students Will Boyd and Sam Shaner, the Yellow Cake Boys, recently visited the Pioneer Charter School of Science in Massachusetts to speak with students about nuclear science and engineering. Their presentation included a slide show and two demos — a simulation of a mock reactor core and a cloud chamber. Students were able to control fuel parameters on the interactive simulation of a reactor to try to get it to go “critical”. The cloud chamber was used to show the effects of ionizing radiation.
Each student was given a piece of yellow cake at the end of the event to illustrate just how much uranium in the form of yellowcake (uranium oxide) is needed to meet the lifetime energy needs of an average American (about three small pieces of cake).