CORE CONVERSION OF THE PORTUGUESE RESEARCH REACTOR

Core conversion of the Portuguese Research Reactor (RPI) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel is being performed within the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation project POR/4/016, with financial support from the U.S. and Portugal. The RPI is a 1 MW pool-type reactor commissioned in 1961. It started up using LEU fuel but a decision to convert it to highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel was taken in the early seventies for economic reasons. However, HEU fuel only started being used in 1990, after a refurbishment of the reactor, at a time when many research reactors were converting instead to LEU fuel. The announcement in the end of 2004 of the 10 year extension on the U.S. foreign research reactor spent fuel acceptance policy opened a new window of opportunity for the operation of the RPI with LEU fuel. The safety analyses for the core conversion were made with the assistance of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) Conversion program and were submitted for regulatory approval in January 2007. At the time of writing of this paper, the core conversion to LEU fuel is expected in the summer of 2007.