Successful Completion of Endurance In-Pile Tests on Experimental Fuel

     Operations on IVG.1M research nuclear reactor conversion to low enriched uranium has been carried out in the National Nuclear Center of RK with the support of the National Nuclear Security Administration of the US Department of Energy (DOE) under international initiatives on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapon.

         To implement conversion FSUE SRI “LUCH” (Russia) had produced experimental water-cooled technological channels with low enriched fuel, that were loaded to the reactor core for endurance tests conduction in pilot operation mode.

         A project on reactor cooling system designing and construction was realized to promote endurance testing program implementation at “Baikal-1” research reactor complex, enabling to reduce task realization terms from three up to two years.

         By the words of Erlan Batyrbekov, Director General of RSE NNC RK, start-up marked the completion of the important stage – in-pile endurance tests on advanced fuel samples for IVG.1M reactor; and at the next stage – post-irradiation material testing will be carried out, upon results of which experimental fuel use possibility may be defined for tasks implementation on IVG.1M reactor conversion to low enriched uranium.

IVG.1M reactor cooling system is presented in the Picture.