Technical Meeting on Commercial Products and Services of
Research Reactors

28 June–2 July, 2010, IAEA, Vienna

The BR2 reactor is a multipurpose 100 MW_th high flux 'Materials Testing Reactor' operated by the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK·CEN) in which various research and commercial programmes are performed. The commercial activities such as radioisotope production and silicon doping have been actively developed since the early 1990s to generate additional revenues. Currently, they represent a significant contribution to the reactor operating costs and are carried out in accordance with a 'Quality System' that has been certified to the requirements of the "EN ISO 9001:2000" in December 2006. Due to its operating flexibility, its reliability and its production capacity, the BR2 reactor is considered as a major facility for these commercial activities worldwide. The availability of thermal neutron fluxes up to 10¹⁵ cm^-2s^-1 allows the production of a wide range of radioisotopes for various applications in nuclear medicine, industry and research such as ⁹⁹Mo (^99mTc), ¹³¹I, ¹³³Xe, ¹⁹²Ir, ⁷⁵Se ¹⁸⁶Re, ¹⁵³Sm, ¹⁶⁹Er, ⁹⁰Y, ³²P, ¹⁸⁸W (¹⁸⁸Re), ²⁰³Hg, ⁸²Br, ⁷⁹Kr, ⁴¹Ar, ¹²⁵I, ¹⁷⁷Lu, ^117mSn, ⁸⁹Sr, ¹⁶⁹Yb, ¹⁴⁷Nd, etc. Some irradiation devices allow the loading and unloading of irradiated targets during the operation of the reactor. Hot-cells and storage facilities are available to prepare and organize the shipment of the irradiated targets to dedicated processing facilities. In the frame of the current ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc global shortage, new dedicated irradiation devices have been installed in April 2010 to increase the ⁹⁹Mo production capacity by 50%. Special efforts have also been made to develop the production of therapeutic radioisotopes as ¹⁷⁷Lu which is supplied by both direct and indirect routes. Neutron Transmutation Doping (NTD) Silicon activities for the semiconductor industry started at SCK·CEN in 1992 with the commissioning of SIDONIE, a single channel light water device that is located in a 200 mm diameter beryllium channel within the reactor pressure vessel. Its design allows the irradiation of 5 inch diameter silicon batches which are continuously rotating and traversing the core at computer controlled speeds. To meet increasing demand for 6 and 8 inch diameter silicon ingots, SCK·CEN designed a new facility which became operational in 2008. POSEIDON is a multichannel graphite moderated device located in the BR2 reactor pool on the outside of the reactor pressure vessel. It has large production capacity due to its capability to irradiate 6 batches of 6 and 8 inch diameter silicon simultaneously.

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