Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2000 International RERTR Meeting

HEU/LEU-Conversion of BER II Successfully Finished

K. Haas, C.-O. Fischer, H. Krohn

Hahn-Meitner-Institut • Glienicker Straße 100 • D-14 109 Berlin

Abstract

The BER II (Berliner Experimental Reactor) research reactor is a swimming pool type reactor located in Berlin, Germany. The reactor operates with a thermal power of 10 MW and is primarily used to produce neutrons for neutron scattering experiments.

The conversion from HEU- to LEU-fuel elements began in August, 1997. At the last RERTR-Meeting 1999 in Budapest, Hungary, Hahn-Meitner-Institut (HMI) presented a "Status Report" on the conversion of 10 HEU/LEU mixed cores. In February 2000, HMI finished the HEU/LEU-conversion. Hereby, the first pure LEU-standard-core went into operation.

Our second LEU-core just ends its operation at the end of July. The third LEU-core will be built up in the beginning of August. The average burn-up rate was improved from 50 - 55% (HEU) to 60 - 65% (LEU). Therefore, only 14 elements/year are now used instead of 28/year.

The following report describes our first steps in building pure LEU-cores from mixed HEU/LEU-cores, as well as our initial experience using the pure LEU-cores.

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