The reactor vessel system of the Kalkar nuclear power plant is described. It consists of the following main components:

  1. reactor vessel with internals
  2. guard vessel
  3. rotating top shield
  4. emergency cooling system
  5. core catcher
  6. facilities for in-service inspections.
The complexity of the system, high safety requirements, and the prototype nature of the overall plant made great demands on the design engineer, Interatom, and on the manufacturers. The additional requirements resulting from the concurrent licensing procedure and the permanent adaptation of the design to the latest state of science and technology demanded great flexibility and creativity from all participants. In some cases, component fabrication necessitated excursions into new technical territory, a fact applying to both the verification and manufacturing process as well as to the extensive quality assurance. Knowledge obtained in the course of a comprehensive research and development program, which was partly performed under operational conditions, from operation of the KNKII reactor in Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany, and from the exchange of information with European fast breeder reactor operators, helped to solve problems that occurred. All experience gathered during the planning, erection, and eventual nuclear commissioning of the plant forms an important basis for the planning of the follow-up plant, SNR 2.