SPRING 2020
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You can try this at home. Put a straw into
a glass of water. Plug the end tightly with
your finger, then take the straw out.
Hello everyone! Just as we started getting this issue ready for you, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Hopefully, you have been keeping busy and finding fun things to do.
Spring is one of my favourite seasons; the grass is growing, the air is fresh, birds are chirping, and hopefully, the bugs aren’t out yet. Even though a lot of our sports and activities are on hold, you can still get outside with your family and enjoy nature. This issue of Kids Contact will help pass some time; you can even win prizes by completing the different activities and sending in pictures. If you have questions or ideas for the summer issue, just send an email to [email protected] or message us on social media.
Thanks!
seven differences between these two photos?
A researcher in our Health Science team uses
a pipette to take small samples of liquids.
QUESTIONS FROM KIDS
Does radiation really glow? We've all seen it in movies and cartoons; radioactive "stuff" seems to always glow green, yellow, or blue. While it does look really cool on TV, in real life, radiation, like the type associated with a nuclear reactor, does not glow.
But, it is not quite this simple. While the radioactivity does not glow, it can cause the material around it to glow.
What you can see, sometimes, is a glow causes by the "Cherenkov Effect" or Cherenkov radiation. The Cherenkov Effect is caused by the interaction of highly energetic radiation with the materials around it. In the picture above, you see Cobalt-60, a radioactive medical isotope that can be used to treat cancer, in a pool of
water. You can also see that it glows a light blue colour. What you are seeing is not the cobalt itself glowing, but the water that surrounds it glowing as the radiation moves through the water.
But why?
The energetic radiation causes electrons in the water to move really fast, so fast that the electrons start to move through the water faster than light can travel through water. If a charged particle, in this case electrons, travels faster than this reduced light speed, it causes a sudden release of energy. The energy is released as photons (energy in the form of light) which is what causes the light blue glow.
#DYK - A similar thing happens with airplanes. When an airplane flies faster than the speed of sound in air, instead of photons being released, you hear the sonic 'boom' caused by the airplane.
Many of you have seen this acrobatic flyer, zipping and swooping in open pastures or fields. Barn Swallows are small blue-black birds well-known for diving very close to the ground, catching flies, grasshoppers, and other insects. Their forked tails allows them to quickly swoop, dive, and change direction.
Barn Swallows need structures to nest in. While sometimes the swallows can find holes in trees, they are also fond of the dry and warm spaces in the attics and eaves of old barns and other buildings.
Status: Threatened (COSEWIC and SARO)
Voice: Noisy when flying. Song is a twittery series of squeaky notes - vit or kvik-kvik - often with a dry rattle in the middle.
Colour: Upper parts are blue-black; breast and belly are beige; dark orange throat; white spots on tail
Length: 15 to 19 cm Wingspan of 29 to 32 cm
CNL is working to completely renew the Chalk River campus, building new labs and removing many of our old buildings. Some of these buildings provided nesting habitat for the barn swallows. So, we are replacing the lost habitat with new structures to make sure that the barn swallows had a dry, warm and safe place to nest.
BARN SWALLOW
CC image "Barn Swallow" courtesy of Richard Griffin on Flickr
The Songbirds of Springtime Babbling brooks, the peeping of frogs, and the chirping of songbirds – all the signature sounds of springtime in the Ottawa Valley. Here at CNL, these sounds play a really important role in helping us understand our environment, and help us make decisions about the work we do.
Before we begin any big project that would disturb the natural environment, we need to get an understanding of the various animals that live in the area. This includes those animals in the water, the ground, and even the air. There are several species at risk birds that call the Chalk River site home, and we need to take care not to disturb them, particularly when nesting.
Although we have probably all had fun bird watching with binoculars in the woods or at the bird feeder, trying to ‘see’ the birds is really difficult in the forests that surround the site. So instead, we ‘listen’ carefully to understand what birds are using the woods near our projects and sites.
We set up “acoustic monitoring” stations that listen for and record the different chirps, whistles, and calls of birds as they move through an area. Each species of bird has a very unique call, and by listening carefully to the recordings we can determine which birds live in an area and a rough idea of how many.
To do this, we set up songmeters that turn on for five minutes every half an hour during the first few hours of the morning. Very sensitive microphones pick up the sounds of the birds singing and make a recording. Once we have the recordings a bird expert plays the calls back on a computer and is able to identify which species of bird is calling.
Send a picture of your
completed puzzle or artwork
to win a great science-themed
prize!
Norah (5) Hannah (8) Asher (11)
Hide and Seek! Can you find all these items hidden in this issue of CONTACT Kids? Just write down what page you found them on in the small circle. Send in your entry, and you just might win a prize!
“Picture This” Challenge! In the spring time we often see the return of many bird species which migrate north with the warmer weather. We see robins, hummingbirds, all sorts of songbirds, ducks, and other waterfowl. Do you have a favourite?
Draw us a photo of your bird - real or imagined - and send it in to [email protected].
Carson (7) KieranGabriel (7)
Tell us a little bit about what you do?
As a fuel researcher at CNL, my job is to look for ways to make improvements to nuclear fuel. Working as a team we look for new ideas to help make the fuel safer,
more efficient, or more sustainable. To do this we look at how the fuel is made, what materials it is made of, and the geometry (which is how the fuel is shaped).
How do you use 3-D printing to make nuclear fuel?
At CNL we use lots of different types of 3-d printing, or “additive manufacturing.” The type I use is called vat polymerization. In really simple terms, the printer works by mixing the fuel material – in this case thorium dioxide – with a special type of glue that hardens upon exposure to light. The printer builds the part in layers, like thin slices, in the shape we are looking for. These layers, or slices get stacked on top of each other. Well, in the case of this printer, it actually prints upside down, sticking one layer at a time until the shape is fully built.
Then we heat the 3-D printed part up to remove the glue leaving only the nuclear fuel behind. By heating the part up even hotter, we can make the part very dense by sintering. This is the same as the firing process that is used when making ceramic objects like coffee mugs or bowls.
Why would you use 3-D printing to make fuel?
Making fuel with a 3-D printer is really interesting, because we can make any shape of fuel we want. This includes fuels with spaces or channels to allow lots of coolant to flow through them, fuels with different materials in the layers, or even fuel with special probes or measuring devices built in.
What is the most interesting part of the job for you?
3-D printing technology is changing very quickly. It’s fun to be working with a technology that’s cutting-edge and being able to relate it back to the work we do to improve nuclear fuel. Maybe the fuel for next generation nuclear reactors will be made this way!
Andrew Bergeron, Fuel Scientist Cool Careers!
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Canada in March of this year, a lot of CNL's regular day-to-day activities were put on hold, and our staff began to work from home. Before some of CNL's scientists and engineers left the site, they brought home several of our 3-D printers. They began to use these printers to help build protective face masks to help keep doctors, nurses, and other health care workers safe in case they had to treat a patient who had the COVID-19 virus.
The 3-D printers use a type of plastic (PETG or PLA) to create the frames and headpieces for the masks.
A "filament" or string of plastic goes into the printer, where it is heated to 200 degrees Celcius. The melted plastic is then used to print each layer of the shape, sort of like how a regular printer uses ink.
The number of layers or "slices" needed changes depending on the printer we use. There are between 40 and 67 printer layers in each headpiece.
It takes about three hours to print each frame. The plastic shield is then cut out and added to the frame.
The design for the face shields is "open source" meaning anyone has permission to copy and use it. People from across the world were able to use their printers to help out, and hundreds of thousands of face shields have been made.
CNL Corporate Communications 286 Plant Road, Stn 700 A Chalk River ON, K0J 1J0
1-800-364-6989 [email protected] www.cnl.ca
In “Under The Microscope” we’ll feature a sample image taken in our materials science laboratories, allowing you a ‘close up’ view of the world we live in. These images show a a torn sheet of basic white paper.
40 X MAGNIFICATION
200 X MAGNIFICATION
In this image you can see the torn edge (top) and the fibres
which make up the paper.
Paper is made of cellulose, usually either recycled paper or plants (often trees) which
have been processed to separate into small fibres.
The rough edges of the fibres, and the smaller pieces of celloluse known as "fines" bind together to make the paper. Different types
of paper have different types and mixes of fibres and fines.
2,500 X MAGNIFICATION
If you have a question for one of our scientists, send it in by email to [email protected].
We’ll get it in the next issue!
a glass of water. Plug the end tightly with
your finger, then take the straw out.
Hello everyone! Just as we started getting this issue ready for you, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Hopefully, you have been keeping busy and finding fun things to do.
Spring is one of my favourite seasons; the grass is growing, the air is fresh, birds are chirping, and hopefully, the bugs aren’t out yet. Even though a lot of our sports and activities are on hold, you can still get outside with your family and enjoy nature. This issue of Kids Contact will help pass some time; you can even win prizes by completing the different activities and sending in pictures. If you have questions or ideas for the summer issue, just send an email to [email protected] or message us on social media.
Thanks!
seven differences between these two photos?
A researcher in our Health Science team uses
a pipette to take small samples of liquids.
QUESTIONS FROM KIDS
Does radiation really glow? We've all seen it in movies and cartoons; radioactive "stuff" seems to always glow green, yellow, or blue. While it does look really cool on TV, in real life, radiation, like the type associated with a nuclear reactor, does not glow.
But, it is not quite this simple. While the radioactivity does not glow, it can cause the material around it to glow.
What you can see, sometimes, is a glow causes by the "Cherenkov Effect" or Cherenkov radiation. The Cherenkov Effect is caused by the interaction of highly energetic radiation with the materials around it. In the picture above, you see Cobalt-60, a radioactive medical isotope that can be used to treat cancer, in a pool of
water. You can also see that it glows a light blue colour. What you are seeing is not the cobalt itself glowing, but the water that surrounds it glowing as the radiation moves through the water.
But why?
The energetic radiation causes electrons in the water to move really fast, so fast that the electrons start to move through the water faster than light can travel through water. If a charged particle, in this case electrons, travels faster than this reduced light speed, it causes a sudden release of energy. The energy is released as photons (energy in the form of light) which is what causes the light blue glow.
#DYK - A similar thing happens with airplanes. When an airplane flies faster than the speed of sound in air, instead of photons being released, you hear the sonic 'boom' caused by the airplane.
Many of you have seen this acrobatic flyer, zipping and swooping in open pastures or fields. Barn Swallows are small blue-black birds well-known for diving very close to the ground, catching flies, grasshoppers, and other insects. Their forked tails allows them to quickly swoop, dive, and change direction.
Barn Swallows need structures to nest in. While sometimes the swallows can find holes in trees, they are also fond of the dry and warm spaces in the attics and eaves of old barns and other buildings.
Status: Threatened (COSEWIC and SARO)
Voice: Noisy when flying. Song is a twittery series of squeaky notes - vit or kvik-kvik - often with a dry rattle in the middle.
Colour: Upper parts are blue-black; breast and belly are beige; dark orange throat; white spots on tail
Length: 15 to 19 cm Wingspan of 29 to 32 cm
CNL is working to completely renew the Chalk River campus, building new labs and removing many of our old buildings. Some of these buildings provided nesting habitat for the barn swallows. So, we are replacing the lost habitat with new structures to make sure that the barn swallows had a dry, warm and safe place to nest.
BARN SWALLOW
CC image "Barn Swallow" courtesy of Richard Griffin on Flickr
The Songbirds of Springtime Babbling brooks, the peeping of frogs, and the chirping of songbirds – all the signature sounds of springtime in the Ottawa Valley. Here at CNL, these sounds play a really important role in helping us understand our environment, and help us make decisions about the work we do.
Before we begin any big project that would disturb the natural environment, we need to get an understanding of the various animals that live in the area. This includes those animals in the water, the ground, and even the air. There are several species at risk birds that call the Chalk River site home, and we need to take care not to disturb them, particularly when nesting.
Although we have probably all had fun bird watching with binoculars in the woods or at the bird feeder, trying to ‘see’ the birds is really difficult in the forests that surround the site. So instead, we ‘listen’ carefully to understand what birds are using the woods near our projects and sites.
We set up “acoustic monitoring” stations that listen for and record the different chirps, whistles, and calls of birds as they move through an area. Each species of bird has a very unique call, and by listening carefully to the recordings we can determine which birds live in an area and a rough idea of how many.
To do this, we set up songmeters that turn on for five minutes every half an hour during the first few hours of the morning. Very sensitive microphones pick up the sounds of the birds singing and make a recording. Once we have the recordings a bird expert plays the calls back on a computer and is able to identify which species of bird is calling.
Send a picture of your
completed puzzle or artwork
to win a great science-themed
prize!
Norah (5) Hannah (8) Asher (11)
Hide and Seek! Can you find all these items hidden in this issue of CONTACT Kids? Just write down what page you found them on in the small circle. Send in your entry, and you just might win a prize!
“Picture This” Challenge! In the spring time we often see the return of many bird species which migrate north with the warmer weather. We see robins, hummingbirds, all sorts of songbirds, ducks, and other waterfowl. Do you have a favourite?
Draw us a photo of your bird - real or imagined - and send it in to [email protected].
Carson (7) KieranGabriel (7)
Tell us a little bit about what you do?
As a fuel researcher at CNL, my job is to look for ways to make improvements to nuclear fuel. Working as a team we look for new ideas to help make the fuel safer,
more efficient, or more sustainable. To do this we look at how the fuel is made, what materials it is made of, and the geometry (which is how the fuel is shaped).
How do you use 3-D printing to make nuclear fuel?
At CNL we use lots of different types of 3-d printing, or “additive manufacturing.” The type I use is called vat polymerization. In really simple terms, the printer works by mixing the fuel material – in this case thorium dioxide – with a special type of glue that hardens upon exposure to light. The printer builds the part in layers, like thin slices, in the shape we are looking for. These layers, or slices get stacked on top of each other. Well, in the case of this printer, it actually prints upside down, sticking one layer at a time until the shape is fully built.
Then we heat the 3-D printed part up to remove the glue leaving only the nuclear fuel behind. By heating the part up even hotter, we can make the part very dense by sintering. This is the same as the firing process that is used when making ceramic objects like coffee mugs or bowls.
Why would you use 3-D printing to make fuel?
Making fuel with a 3-D printer is really interesting, because we can make any shape of fuel we want. This includes fuels with spaces or channels to allow lots of coolant to flow through them, fuels with different materials in the layers, or even fuel with special probes or measuring devices built in.
What is the most interesting part of the job for you?
3-D printing technology is changing very quickly. It’s fun to be working with a technology that’s cutting-edge and being able to relate it back to the work we do to improve nuclear fuel. Maybe the fuel for next generation nuclear reactors will be made this way!
Andrew Bergeron, Fuel Scientist Cool Careers!
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Canada in March of this year, a lot of CNL's regular day-to-day activities were put on hold, and our staff began to work from home. Before some of CNL's scientists and engineers left the site, they brought home several of our 3-D printers. They began to use these printers to help build protective face masks to help keep doctors, nurses, and other health care workers safe in case they had to treat a patient who had the COVID-19 virus.
The 3-D printers use a type of plastic (PETG or PLA) to create the frames and headpieces for the masks.
A "filament" or string of plastic goes into the printer, where it is heated to 200 degrees Celcius. The melted plastic is then used to print each layer of the shape, sort of like how a regular printer uses ink.
The number of layers or "slices" needed changes depending on the printer we use. There are between 40 and 67 printer layers in each headpiece.
It takes about three hours to print each frame. The plastic shield is then cut out and added to the frame.
The design for the face shields is "open source" meaning anyone has permission to copy and use it. People from across the world were able to use their printers to help out, and hundreds of thousands of face shields have been made.
CNL Corporate Communications 286 Plant Road, Stn 700 A Chalk River ON, K0J 1J0
1-800-364-6989 [email protected] www.cnl.ca
In “Under The Microscope” we’ll feature a sample image taken in our materials science laboratories, allowing you a ‘close up’ view of the world we live in. These images show a a torn sheet of basic white paper.
40 X MAGNIFICATION
200 X MAGNIFICATION
In this image you can see the torn edge (top) and the fibres
which make up the paper.
Paper is made of cellulose, usually either recycled paper or plants (often trees) which
have been processed to separate into small fibres.
The rough edges of the fibres, and the smaller pieces of celloluse known as "fines" bind together to make the paper. Different types
of paper have different types and mixes of fibres and fines.
2,500 X MAGNIFICATION
If you have a question for one of our scientists, send it in by email to [email protected].
We’ll get it in the next issue!
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