International Conference on Research Reactors:
Safe Management and Effective Utilization

14-18 November 2011, Rabat, Morocco

The Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) is a new Material Testing Reactor currently under construction at CEA Cadarache research centre in the south of France. It will represent a major Research Infrastructure for scientific studies dealing with material and fuel behaviour under irradiation (and is consequently identified for this purpose within various European road maps and forums; ESFRI, SNE-TP…). The reactor will also be devoted to medical isotopes production. The reactor will perform R&D programs for the optimization of the present generation of NPP, support the development of the next generation of NPP (mainly LWR) and also offer irradiation capacities for future reactors. JHR is designed, built and will be operated as an international user-facility open to international collaboration. In order to comply with the evolution of safety requirements and to guarantee long term operations, the construction safety standards of JHR have been significantly improved compared to MTRs built in the 60s. The paper gives an up-to-date status of the construction and of the developments performed to build the future experimental capacity and is particularly focusing on the modern Safety approach used and its consequences on the design of the reactor.

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