Atomic egg and FRM II attract visitors at the open day

Exhibition Atomic Egg The special exhibition with a miniature Atomic Egg on the occasion of its 60th birthday attracted many visitors. © FRM II / TUM

The special exhibition with a miniature Atomic Egg on the occasion of its 60th birthday attracted many visitors. © FRM II / TUM

Fully booked guided tours, crowded info booths and great interest in the special exhibition on the Atomic Egg – this is the conclusion of the Open House Day at the Research Neutron Source.

The first visitors of the FRM II, who wanted to register for the tour, got up very early. They wanted to register at 9 o’clock, four hours later all the tours were booked for the whole day. 543 lucky people could see the reactor pool, walk through the experimental and the neutron guide halls. The 120 places from the online registration were already booked after three days, the remaining 423 had to line up in the physics department directly on Saturday, October 21st and hope for their luck.
Even those who could no longer get a seat could enjoy the many other attraction and get information. For example, at the booth of radiation protection, one was able to prove his abilities as a reactor driver and virtually control a neutron source. At the information booth of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum, scientists showed the use of their scientific instruments with the help of lego-models. The neutron-toss ball game was always crowded, especially by younger visitors, who were able to win a T-shirt when having hit four “atoms”. Also the lectures of Dr. Anton Kastenmüller, Dr. Astrid Schneidewind, Dr. Michael Hofmann, Dr. Michael Lerche, Dr. Christoph Hugenschmidt and Steffen Schuster (itg) at the physics department attracted visitors, as did the films in another lecture room.

Open day booth The booth of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum was always surrounded by people. © FRM II / TUM

The booth of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum was always surrounded by people. © FRM II / TUM

On the occasion of the 60th birthday of the Atom-Ei, a special exhibition with a walk-through miniature atomic egg was held in the entrance building of the FRM II, where visitors could listen to recordings from the interior of the egg, watch films and pictures about the history of the first German research reactor, and look at some original expositions such as fuel element models. The Norbert Waasmaier, formerly having worked at the Atomic Egg, and the former administrative director Dr. Klaus Seebach answered the questions of the very interested visitors and let them live the history of the Atomic Egg.