54 years young

摘要

Like France's Chooz A reactor, the Halden research reactor is built in a tunnel inside a cliff (Figures 1&2). Like other early nuclear power plants (it went critical in June 1959), it employs an unusual design: a natural-circulation boiling water reactor cooled with heavy water (deuterium). Maximum thermal power is 25 MW; peak temperature is 235℃ and peak pressure is 34 Bar (3.4 MPa). The active height of its core is 80cm (2 feet). There are 300 (interchangeable) core positions for fuel and experiments, but to safeguard the integrity of the pressure vessel from radiation damage only the innermost 110 are used (Figure 3). There are typically about 30 experiments, and the rest of the positions are made up of driver assemblies, each with eight or nine UO_2 fuel rods with 6% enrichment.