Technical Meeting on Commercial Products and Services of
Research Reactors

28 June–2 July, 2010, IAEA, Vienna

The BR2 material test reactor offers a variety of experimental irradiation possibilities for testing of materials, fuels and instruments. The current paper gives an overview of the recent and ongoing programmes in order to illustrate the experimental potential of the reactor. Three domains of applications are reviewed: Irradiation of materials and fuels for pressurised water reactors (PWR); irradiation of materials for accelerator driven systems (ADS), cooled by liquid lead alloys; and irradiation of fuel for Material Test Reactors (MTR). For PWR relevant tests, a dedicated loop is available, providing a full simulation of the thermo hydraulic conditions of a PWR. ADS related tests require particular control of the irradiation environment and the necessary safety precautions in order to avoid ²¹⁰Po contamination. In-core mechanical testing of materials is done in comparison and complimentarily to post-irradiation examinations in order to assess flux related effects on the deformation behaviour of materials.

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