3 ms·
True story: I was once almost kicked out of BYU for attempting to sneak into one of the tunnels under the campus. A couple of years later, a professor actually
by GlenTheMachine 4y ago
True story: I was once almost kicked out of BYU for attempting to sneak into one of the tunnels under the campus.
A couple of years later, a professor actually invited me through the door I had tried to enter. It turned out that what was inside was a gymnasium-sized physics lab that was directly under one of the larger quads on campus. The major feature of which was a particle accelerator. That fact might have been known among the physics majors, I don't know, but it certainly was not common knowledge among the student body at large.
There was another "secret" door on campus, this one into the hill that the Honors Department main building sat on. That door led to the nuclear reactor. Nobody ever tried to get in there.
For a private, mostly undergraduate university, it had a surprisingly active nuclear physics research group.
- matthoiland 4y agoBYU Scientists Convert Matter Into Mormonism [1] 1. https://www.theonion.com/byu-scientists-convert-matter-into-mormonism-1819563980 https://www.theonion.com/byu-scientists-convert-matter-into-...
- User23 4y agoThat reminds me of my time at Harvard when I was a high schooler. Me and my buddy were wandering around campus when we saw a door propped slightly open that said "Warning: Cyclotron." Naturally we thought that sounds awesome so we wandered in to see what a cyclotron was. After a bit of explanation we ended up getting an unofficial tour. It was really neat!
- McKayDavis 4y agoI doubt the veracity of your claims because according to multiple sources [1][2] the only nuclear reactor in the state of Utah is located on the bottom floor of the Merrill Engineering Building on the University of Utah campus. If a reactor were located on the BYU campus, I would expect it to be public knowledge and tracked by the IAEA. I used to work on the top floor of MEB for many years and had the opportunity to see the glow of the core in the pool of water on multiple occasions. Tangentially, the UofU reactor made national headlines last week when a student made a threat to blow it up if the football team lost [3]. 1. https://www.deseret.com/2011/3/16/20370414/university-of-utah-has-own-nuclear-reactor-tucked-away https://www.deseret.com/2011/3/16/20370414/university-of-uta... 2. https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2016/11/04/sole-nuclear-reactor-utah-housed-u/ https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2016/11/04/sole-nuclear-react... 3. https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/college-football/2022/9/22/23366670/student-utah-nuclear-reactor-if-the-utes-lost-and-there-are-so-many-questions https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/college-football/2022/...
- HideousKojima 4y agoI went to BYU and while there are tunnels under campus, they're basically just for maintenance, steam and electrical conduits, etc. as far as I'm aware.
- goda90 4y agoThere's also an underground data center under the computer science building.
- vitno 4y agoA quick Google search reveals they had a nuclear reactor till 1992. https://universe.byu.edu/2011/06/13/byu-once-housed-underground-nuclear-reactor/ https://universe.byu.edu/2011/06/13/byu-once-housed-undergro...
- prpl 4y agoMost of the infrastructure is likely still there as well. Most DOE facilities are also junkyards with the metals moratoriums so I could imagine this applies to BYU.
- prpl 4y agoThe U has a 100kW reactor TRIGA reactor. It's at the western side of the Merrill Engineering Building (as well as decommissioned 1 or 5 Watt (IIRC) reactor from the ~50s that migrated over there from physics building at one point). The reactor was not particularly common knowledge in mid-2000s, even among engineering students. It became a bit more common knowledge later for various reasons (apparently it was in the news now when I tried to google the 1/2 watt reactor - so I couldn't find much on that now)