Key Features of Nuclear Research Reactors

By October 2004, some 672 research reactors had been built. Of these, 274 in 56 countries are in operation today. Such reactors are not generally used for producing electrical power, although they have a very high power density in the core requiring special design features. They are used for research and training, materials testing, as neutron generators and for production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial applications. Many such reactors are located within university and research centre campuses. Typically a research reactor produces power in the range between 10MW(th) and 100MW(th) compared with 3,000MW(th) (or 1,000MW(e)) generally produced in a nuclear power plant. In fact the total power produced from all research reactors is about 3,000MW(th). The operating modes are also different producing energy that may be steady or pulsed.

Research reactors are not only simpler requiring less fuel but also smaller than the power reactors and operate at lower temperatures. Generally the fuel is highly enriched uranium that can be typically 20% U-235. The older generation reactors use uranium fuel enriched to 93% U-235.

In this chapter, three nuclear research reactor facilities in Germany are examined. This is because some aerial photographs and moderate resolution satellite imageries (at best 5m) were readily available. The aerial photographs were initially used to identify such parameters as the security fences, the shapes of various buildings that were associated with research reactors and also their relationships with each other. In the absence of very high-resolution satellite imageries, such aerial photographs played a very important role. The “key” constructed from such photographs and relatively low-resolution satellite imageries will be confirmed by acquiring some high-resolution imageries over the sites examined.