Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2002 International RERTR Meeting

FRG-1 COMPACT CORE WITH HIGHER DENSITY FUEL
- EXPERIENCE FROM THE FIRST TO THE EQUILIBRIUM CORE -

W. KNOP, W. JAGER and P. SCHREINER

GKSS-ForschungszentrumGeesthacht GmbH
Max-Planck-Straße 1, D-21502 Geesthacht
Germany

ABSTRACT

The GKSS research center Geesthacht GmbH operates the MTR-type swimming pool research reactor FRG-1 (5 MW) for more than 40 years. The FRG-1 has been converted in February 1991 from HEU (93 %) to LEU (20 %) in one step and at that time the core size was reduced from 49 to 26 fuel elements. Consequently the thermal neutron flux in beam tube positions could be increased by more than a factor of two [1, 2]. It is the strong intention of GKSS to continue the operation of the FRG-1 research reactor for at least an additional 15 years with high availability and utilization. The reactor has been operated during the last years for approximately 250 full power days per year. To prepare the FRG-1 for an efficient future use, the core size has been reduced in a second step from 26 fuel elements to 12 fuel elements.

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