Technical Meeting on Commercial Products and Services of
Research Reactors

28 June–2 July, 2010, IAEA, Vienna

HANARO is an open pool type multi-purposed research reactor located at KAERI, in Korea. Since the commencement of HANARO operation in 1995, various neutron irradiation facilities such as the rabbit irradiation facilities, the FTL facilities, and the capsule irradiation facilities for irradiation tests of nuclear materials and fuels have been developed at HANARO. The irradiation facilities have been actively utilized for the various nuclear fuel and material irradiation tests requested by users from research institutes, universities, and the industries. Most irradiation tests have been related to the R&D relevant to the present nuclear power reactor such as ageing management and safety evaluation of the components. HANARO has also been applied on several commercial-based irradiation tests relevant to the extension of the life time of the current nuclear power reactor (Kori-1), new alloy and fuel developments (Doosan Heavy Industry Co. and Korea Nuclear Fuel Co.), and control rod material evaluation (Westinghouse Electric Company, USA). Based on the accumulated experience and the users’ sophisticated requirements, HANARO has recently started new support of R&D relevant to the future nuclear systems of the System-integrated Modular Advanced Reactor (SMART) and Very High Temperature Reactor system (VHTR). The SMART is one of the most advanced small and medium sized reactors in the world. The Korean government decided recently to develop the system as one of its new growth engines. An irradiation plan of the SMART steam generator material to obtain the neutron irradiation characteristics of the alloy using HANARO irradiation capsules was planned and undertaken. The VHTR is one of the leading reactor designs for next-generation nuclear energy systems to meet the world's future energy needs. A Generation IV R&D plan for the structural materials in VHTR's was initiated as an International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (I-NERI) Project, which is a bilateral research agreement between the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Korea and the Department of Energy of the U.S. To effectively support the R&D relevant to future nuclear systems, the development of advanced irradiation technologies concerning high-temperature irradiation test is being preferentially developed in HANARO. HANARO is widely available for international research programs and cooperation.

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