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.