Field excursion of The Physics LK - Gymnasium Ulricianum Aurich, October 2006

On the dawning morning of Friday the 6th the much longed for field excursion of the Physics
LK was about to commence from the ZOB. Accompanied by the Politics LK, the Music LK,
the German LK and one Biology LK we started for the legendary and ancient city of Prague.
The journey there was rather lovely and well organized. Apart from a few abnormalities in
The Bahn’s schedule (which actually have become fairly normal) was our trip very enjoyable.
We were accommodated in fairly basic hotel but that didn’t affect our enthusiasmin the slightest. In the following days we visited the old district of Prague with the famous Charles Bridge, the National
Scientific Museum, the Abbey of Strahov with its historic library. To make a long story short we had a look at all sights in and around Prague that were of interest. One further point really worth
mentioning was the dripstone cave, which itself was not too thrilling, as most
of us had seen such caves before but Mr Peters could spice up the rather lame tour with his
broad geological knowledge. And near the end of the cave was all of a sudden Thomas Uden
playing (to everyone’s astonishment) the guitar and singing.

The Physics LK looking up to the bust of their Pontifex Maximus at the residential house of Albert Einstein in Prague.

But Wednesday ought to become the very special day of the Physics-LK. We got up way
before cockcrow at 4 am to catch the bus to Temelín where the largest nuclear power plant in
the Czech Republic is located. The town of Temelín is just a stone's throw from the atomic
plant and about 50 km to the Austrian as well as the German border. When we arrived at the site there was very little to see of the facility itself, we couldn’t even spot the cooling towers as the whole area was covered in mist. At the information house we were schooled about the security and safety measures and watched a trailer about the significance of nuclear energy. Divided into two groups and fully equipped with safety helmets an ID cards we only had to pass the security gate. But to our big surprise we still had to make a breathalyser test, which was pretty shocking for some of my class mates, but all of us ran through. Finally on site, two lovely women took us around the atomic station. We were lead through the noisy powerhouse and the guides explained the function of the individual water circuits, construction and characteristics. The turbines for example were fabricated in the national
Škoda factory. The guides ensured us that Temelín is a very safe power plant and mentioned
a variety of extra precautions like the wall thickness of more than two meters. At the end of
our tour the fog had settled and eventually we could see the four majestic cooling towers
overshadowing the entire region.
Back in the information house we visited an exhibition about physics which was fairly
interesting.
But the time flew by and we had to get the bus back to Prague.
Summarizing was the trip really worth the early start. Furthermore we really appreciated the
good care by the guides and translators who tirelessly explained our queries.
Back in Prague we could convince Mr Hinrichs to skip the late afternoon activities, so we
could get some rest to be ready for the night again.

The whole course in front of the cooling towers in Temelín.

by Alexander Stracke for course PH51Lf