(intense music) - [Automated Voice] Shield lighting off.

(hi-hat plays) Dropping pump on.

Dropping pump off.

- Okay, so we're not in danger right now of a nuclear explosion?

(alarm sounds) (electric beeping) Where are we and what is going on here?

- Well you're in the reactor room at Northwest Nuclear Laboratories.

- Which is?

- Also my basement.

- Got ya.

(electricity beeping and whirring) (switches clicking) - [Carl] Behind us is a thermonuclear atomic reactor.

This bottom part of the unit, I ordered from eBay.

- [Automated Voice] High voltage supply off.

- Got it from NASA.

It was actually used during the assembly of the Columbia Space Shuttle.

We got it, cleaned it all back up, took it apart, had it painted at an auto body shop, and brought it back to life.

- So NASA has an eBay account?

- NASA has an eBay account.

- Did not know that.

- [Carl] It is a device that draws a bunch of ions, which are a form of atom, to a central point we call a negative potential well, and it does so so quickly that they collide and they literally fuse together.

- [Katie] And what temperature would that be?

- [Carl] 300 million degrees.

That's hotter than the surface of the sun.

This process releases atomic particles in a form of radiation that we can detect and we can actually use those particles for a variety of useful scientific processes.

Everything from oncology, material science, some of the energy aspects, and delve a little bit into something called quantum mechanics.

- I understand what quantum mechanics is.

Sure, you don't need to explain that.

So this is safe, right?

- It is safe.

DSHS Office of Radiation Protection has been out here and performed an inspection on the machine at the request of a resident who was concerned because they had seen a newspaper article on our operation.

- So one of your neighbors narced you out?

- We don't know if it was a neighbor.

We have a very good relationship on this block with our neighbors, as a matter of fact.

- Well, and it's held together by duct tape, so I assume that it's in really good shape.

- The duct tape is an important quality of any real scientific equipment.

(electric clicking) (bouncy music) Yeah, for seven years, there is literally no exposure for any of our students or any of our staff above what is called "background radiation".

- I think we're safe.

- And that's the same radiation that you and I both experience when we stand outside on a sunny day.

(man lecturing students) - Northwest Nuclear Laboratories is a response my wife and I have to a situation we see having to do with young people dropping out of high school, and dropping out of college.

This machine is a training reactor.

Our job is to use this reactor to train the scientists of tomorrow.

My philosophy is treating them as scientists from day one.

Explain what science is, put a lab coat on 'em, put the safety glasses in their pockets, set 'em in front of a real reactor, have them drive and realize, "This is something I could do."

The hope is that some day, someone will come up with a small fusion-powered device that will generate electricity.

- Maybe one of your students?

- Very possibly.

Emergency!

Rel, code one!

Scram!

(pounds button) (electricity stops whirring) - It's off.

(mystical cadence plays) This program is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.