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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Hungyuan B. Liu, Robert M. Brugger
Nuclear Technology | Volume 108 | Number 2 | November 1994 | Pages 151-156
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A35026
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Convenient, economical epithermal neutron beams will be needed in the future for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). We studied two concepts for producing epithermal neutron beams with low-power reactors. The first design is a 100-kW reactor with a 235U fission plate placed outside the reflector region, plus an Al/Al2O3 moderator assembly. The beam, which is directed forward, delivers a flux of epithermal neutrons of 0.8 × 109 n/cm2·s and a fast neutron dose of 4.4 × 10−11 cGy·cm2/nepi. The second design is based on a slab reactor plus a similar Al/Al2O3 moderator assembly. With an operating power of 50 kW, the beam has an intensity of 1.4 × 109 n/cm2.s and a fast neutron dose of 4.6 × 10−11 cGy·cm2/nepi; this beam also is directed forward. These epithermal neutron beams should be acceptable for BNCT; a treatment could be completed in ∼1 h, and the fast neutron dose to the skin would not be the limiting dose. Such small reactors should be practicable in a hospital location.
